Tribological Response of Basalt/Carbon Hybrid Laminated Composites After Water-Immersion Aging: Influence of Stacking Sequence Under Reciprocating Wear

This study investigates the tribological response of basalt, carbon, and basalt-carbon hybrid laminates subjected to pressurized water-immersion aging and reciprocating sliding, with emphasis on the role of stacking sequence. Composite plates with B₈, C₈, B₂C₄B₂, and C₂B₄C₂ architectures were aged in deionized water at 10 bar for up to 30 days, then tested against a 100Cr6 steel ball at 30 N, 50 m track and 1 or 2 Hz. Water uptake ranged from approximately 4.3% for B8 to 1.2-2.7% for carbon-rich and hybrid laminates, and induced a depression and broadening of the epoxy glass-transition region that was most severe in basalt-skinned systems. At 1 Hz and 30-day aging, B8 exhibited the most severe damage, with wear-scar widths and depths approaching 3.0 mm and 0.50 mm, whereas C8 retained narrow shallow scars below 0.8 mm and 0.02 mm and COF values below 0.20. Increasing frequency to 2 Hz mitigated wear, reducing B8 depth to approximately 0.30 mm under similar conditions. Factorial analysis attributed more than 70% of the variance in wear width to laminate architecture. The combined pressurized immersion, multi-frequency reciprocating wear and DSC, profilometry, and SEM methodology provides an original framework to link hygrothermal plasticization to architecture-dependent tribological durability in hybrid basalt-carbon laminates.