Synergistic effects of microstructure and abrasion condition on abrasive wear of composites - A modeling study

Composite materials are widely used in industry to resist wear of machinery, equipment and facilities. The high wear resistance of composite materials benefits from the combination of a hard reinforcing phase and a ductile/tough matrix,which may effectively resist wear under various wear conditions. However, the wear resistance of composites depends largely on their microstructure, reinforcement/matrix interfacial bond strength, and the working condition. In our previous studies, factors such as the volume fraction, size and size distribution of reinforcements, interfacial bond strength, and the ratio of the abrasive size to that of the reinforcement, were studied separately using a micro-scale dynamic model (MSDM). However, in reality, the microstructural and environmental factors influence the wear resistance of a composite simultaneously, thus making the experimental investigation difficult. In this work, combined or synergetic effects of the volume fraction, geometry and distribution of reinforcement, interfacial bond strength, and the size ratio on abrasive wear of composites were computationally studied using MSDM. It is of importance to investigate the interaction between those factors in order to optimize the microstructure of tribo composites against abrasive wear. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.