Mechanical and tribological study of short glass fiber-reinforced PA 66

Tensile, flexural, wear, and friction behaviors of polyamide 6.6 (PA 66) reinforced by different weight fractions of short glass- iber were investigated. Three-point bending flexural tests in addition to monotonic tensile tests were carried out to determine the mechanical behavior. Reciprocating friction tests were carried out without lubrication under ambient conditions. A ball-on-flat contact configuration was adopted for all tests. Reciprocating wear tests were carried out against a silicon carbide abrasive paper. Results show that the reinforcement influenced mechanical and tribological behaviors and that the orientation of glass fiber has an effect on the friction behavior. Increasing the weight fraction of glass fiber increases the ultimate strength, the flexural strength, and the elastic modulus but decreases the elongation at break. Increasing the weight fraction of glass fiber decreases the coefficient of friction and increases the wear rate. For high weight fractions, when sliding parallel to the glass fiber direction, the coefficient of friction is smaller than which is measured in the perpendicular direction. Abrasive wear mechanism of wear was illustrated via scanning electron micrographs.