Investigation on tribological behaviour of copper-free composite friction material under dry sliding at high-temperature

ABSTRACT

This research uses a rotary pin-on-disc tribometer to explore the friction and wear behaviour of a copper-free semi-metallic friction composite over various operating temperatures, 25 °C, 150 °C, 250 °C, 350 °C, and 450 °C. The tribological performance of copper-free semi-metallic specimens is significantly affected by heat degradation. It was found that at 450 °C, severe wear of the pin specimen occurred. The friction layer coverage gradually decreased at ≥ 250 °C. The composite pin’s wear rate was found to increase 13.26 times from 450 °C to 25 °C, whereas the disc wear rate at 450 °C was 0.86 times the wear rate at 25 °C for the loading condition of 60 N load, 2.09 m/s sliding velocity and 6283 m sliding distance. Micro-ploughing was the primary wear process below and at 150 °C, whereas groove development, delamination, and severe adhesion dominated above 150 °C.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Friction tests were conducted under dry sliding conditions at room temperature (25 °C) and high temperatures (150 °C, 250 °C, 350 °C, and 450 °C).

• Severe wear of the pin specimen was observed at 450 °C, with 13.26 times increase in wear rate compared to 25 °C.

• Thermal degradation of the binder material significantly impacts the tribological performance above 350 °C.

• Micro-ploughing is predominant below and at 150 °C, while groove development, delamination, and severe adhesion dominate above this temperature.

KEYWORDS:

• Dry Sliding
• Friction and Wear
• Copper-free Semi-metallic Friction Material
• High-temperature Pin-on-Disc
• SEM

Nomenclature

CoF	=	coefficient of friction
GCI	=	grey cast iron
SEM	=	scanning electron microscope
EDX	=	energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
XRF	=	x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy
ρ	=	density of pin
W1	=	initial pin weight
W2	=	final pin weight
W	=	Wear volume
d	=	sliding distance
P	=	porosity (%)
wf	=	weight of the sample after soaking in water for 24 hrs
wi	=	initial weight of the sample
TGA	=	thermogravimetric analysis
DTG	=	differential thermogravimetric
wt.	=	weight
ND	=	not defined

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus central library for providing access to different journals and the Central Analytical Laboratory (CAL) for SEM access.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Ashish Saurabh: Investigation, Methodology, Visualisation, Validation, Data curation, and Writing an original draft. Abhinav Manoj: Data curation and Investigation. Sunil Kumar Tiwari: Post-review technical editing and writing, Language-editing. Prabakaran Saravanan: Writing-review and editing. Piyush Chandra Verma: Fund acquisition, Conceptualisation, Writing-review and editing, and Supervision.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09603409.2024.2327734

Additional information

Funding

This research has received funding from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) of the Government of India under the start-up research grant (SRG) scheme with File No. SRG/2021/001174.