Wet tribology performance of carbon fabric/resin composites

In order to adapt the unusual operating conditions such as high rotating speed, excessive load and insufficient lubrication and so on, the carbon fabric was applied to wet friction composites for its excellent tribology performance, self-lubricating and low density. Three kinds of carbon fabric/resin composites were developed with 1 K, 3 K and 6 K carbon fabric as reinforcement, respectively, and the wet tribology performance of the carbon fabric/resin composites were investigated. The experimental results show that the instantaneous braking stability and the dynamic friction coefficient decreases, but the wear resistance enhances with the increase of monofilaments in fiber bundle. The wear rates of all composites are less than 1.10×10^-5 mm³/J, indicating excellent wear resistance of the composites. The wear rates of couple plates are small too, which is only about 0.40×10^-5 mm³/J. The breakage and removal of carbon fibers along with resin peeling off from the surface appear to be the dominant wear mechanism, but no large size of wear debris and "third body" abrasive particles embedded into the matrix were formed which effectively avoids severe abrasion of the friction materials and the couple plates.