Tribo Performance of T-bfrp Composite Subjected to Dry/Wet Contact Conditions - Natural Polymers, Biopolymers, Biomaterials, and Their Composites, Blends, and IPNs - page 307

into two regions; “running in” and “steady state”. From the Figure, as sliding distance
builds up, specific wear rate gradually reduces until a steady state transition (6.72 km).
Surprisingly, the steady state specific wear rate was much shorter (≈ 4.2 km) as com-
pared to the dry test (≈ 5 km); cf. Figure 6(a). The presence of water helped to cool the
interface that is reducing the thermo mechanical loading of the composite during the
sliding. This enhanced the wear (low values of specific wear rate) namely under wet
contact conditions. From Figure 6(b), one can see that superior improvement on Ws
was achieved compared to the dry tests; cf. Figure 6(a). It is suggested that introduc-
ing water at the interface served two main purposes; as a cleaning and cooling agent
(Baley et al., 2006; Bijwe et at., 2002). As such, in wet contact conditions, the specific
wear rate of the composite was low by about five times compared to the dry tests.
Figure 6. Specific wear rate (Ws) of T-BFRP composite vs. sliding distance at different applied loads
and 2.8 m/s sliding velocity under dry/wet contact conditions.