Friction Behaviors and Wear Mechanisms of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites for Bridge Cable

Carbon fiber reinforced epoxy resin composites (CFRP) have excellent properties such as anti-wear and fatigue resistance, which are expected to significantly improve the service life of structures under complex conditions. In the present paper, the friction behaviors and wear mechanisms of CFRP under complex environment of different applied loads, sliding speeds, service temperatures and water lubrication were studied and analyzed in detail. It was found that the friction and wear properties of CFRP were most sensitive to the applied loads, because the tangential displacement caused large shear stress at the friction pair interface, the serviced temperature second, and water lubrication had minimal effect. Compared with 500 g, the wear rate and scratch width of samples loaded with 2000 g increased by 155.9% and 111.0%, which was attributed to the irreversible debonding damage at the fiber/resin interface under high load friction, leading to severe delamination wear. Compared with room temperature, the wear rate of CFRP at 100 ℃ and 120 ℃ increased by 72.5% and 109.2%, which was attributed to the fact that the elevated temperature condition changed the epoxy resin from glassy to elastic state, and excessive plastic deformation led to fatigue wear of CFRP. In addition, the sliding speed and water lubrication had an insignificant effect on the friction coefficient of CFRP (less than 20%), especially under the 60 ℃ water lubrication condition, and it was only 13.4%. This was because the lubrication functions and heat dissipation of water molecules alleviated the friction state of CFRP/ball interface, and only slight abrasive wear occurred. The wear rate of CFRP at 120 mm/s was 77.9% higher than that at 60 mm/s, which was attributed to the large rate difference resulting in uncoordinated deformation of the CFRP surface and subsurface, resulting in adhesive wear.