Frictional heating calculation based on tailored experimental measurements

New composites and nano-composites polymers are continuously developed satisfying more and more exigent demands in terms of mechanical and tribological properties. Nevertheless a wide working velocity range has been achieved; one of the main bottlenecks of these materials is related to their thermal resistance. Semi-crystalline materials have a wide range of temperature; however, their operative life decreases exponentially with increasing temperature. For several applications, knowing the contact temperature can give a considerable help in choosing the right polymer to be used. An adequate frictional heating calculation based on Block and Jaeger equations is herein proposed matching experimental tests configuration at laboratory scale and theory to overtake restrictive assumptions. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.