Investigation of the Sliding Wear Performance Of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyamide 66 Under Different Conditions

Polyamide-based composite materials are preferred in many application areas exposed to tribological factors, making the determination of their friction and wear behaviors of great importance. This study aimed to reveal the relationship between the friction and wear behaviors and the material structure of glass fiber (GF) reinforced Polyamide 66 (PA66) composite. For this purpose, wear tests were carried out under dry sliding conditions using a ball-on-disc test apparatus with two different normal loads (10N and 20N) and two different sliding velocities (0.05 m/s and 0.1 m/s). Coefficients of friction were obtained based on the sliding distance. It was observed that the coefficient of friction decreased with increasing load at the lower velocity, whereas it increased with increasing load at the higher velocity. The increase in sliding velocity caused a decrease in the coefficient of friction under both loading conditions. After tribological characterization, it was determined that the volume loss due to wear increased with the increase in applied normal load and decreased with the increase in sliding velocity. Similar trends were also valid for the specific wear rates. The morphologies of the worn surfaces were examined using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and potential wear mechanisms were identified. Damage mechanisms such as fiber cracks, fiber breakage and fiber shrinkage, micro-cracks, and wear residues on worn surfaces were demonstrated.