Mechanical and tribological behavior of random discontinuous glass fiber reinforced polypropylene

In this study, the mechanical and tribological sliding wear tests are performed and the effect of varying load, sliding velocity for random-discontinuous glass fiber reinforced polypropylene was investigated. The tensile tests of GFRP material are performed for 2mm sheet thickness in uniaxial loading conditions. The sliding wear test was performed on the pin-on-disc apparatus for the load from 10 N to 50 N at an interval of 10 N and sliding velocity from 1m/s to 5m/s at an interval of 1m/s. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to interpret the surface wear effects for considered conditions. The coefficient of friction (COF) was increased as the normal load is increased, but for 40 N load sudden drop in COF was observed. In varying velocities, the graph showed nonlinear conditions for COF values. The wear rate for both conditions was also investigated.