Wear mechanism of Nomex/PTFE fiber reinforced composites

Abstract This paper is aimed at the problems of abnormal tribological damage and fluctuation of tribological performance in the self-lubricating composite serving in heavy load spherical plain bearing in aerospace field. The Nomex/PTFE fiber reinforced composite was used to carry out a reciprocating block on ring tribological test, investigating the tribological performance of the material and its wear evolution. Results show that the influence of oscillating frequency on material wear is obviously higher than that of load under high load condition (more than 90 MPa or 180 kN). Under a certain load and frequency condition, friction temperature is a key factor to affect wear behavior of the material. Friction heat plays a dominant role in the process of worn out failure of the material. Too high friction temperature greatly weakens the friction and wear performance, resulting in material failure in a short time. Thermal fatigue is the main tribological damage mode of the material under the high load and high frequency condition, with local worn out occurred. This finding was also verified by SEM analysis of the worn surface and wear debris.