Investigation of the wear behaviour of a glass-fibre-reinforced composite and plain polyester resin

In industrial applications, the increase in the use of composite materials means that it is necessary to know their behaviour under working conditions. Wear is an important parameter and its experimental behaviour must be known. In this study, the wear behaviour of a glass-fibre-reinforced composite and plain polyester resin are experimentally investigated for speeds of 500 and 710 rpm and at two different loads of 500 and 1000 g by the use of a block-on-disk wear tester. Wear in the experiments was determined as weight loss. The weight losses were measured after sliding distances of 235.5, 471, 706.5, 942, 1177.5, 1413, 1648.5 and 1884 mm. In addition, photographs of specimens were taken under the SEM and the wear behaviour in these photographs was investigated. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.