Sliding wear behaviour of woven glass fibre reinforced polyester composites

The dry sliding wear behaviour of woven glass fibre reinforced polyester composites has been studied by using pin-ondisc machine. The friction and wear experiments have been conducted on three different orientation of glass fibre with respect to sliding direction. The coefficient of friction and wear of the composites at various applied load and sliding speeds have been determined. The lowest coefficient of friction and wear values observed for the fibres oriented in 0°-90° direction and highest are for normal-longitudinal (N-L) orientation. The applied load further increase the friction and wear of the composites for all orientations. The friction and wear behaviour have been dominated by a number of mechanisms. The wear of the fibres has been dominated by the fibre fracture. The fibres have been fractured because of bending of fibre due to dragging by the steel disc in the sliding direction. The microscopic observations of the worn surfaces revealed and supported the involved mechanism