On the elementary wear mechanisms of UD-GFRP composites using single indenter scratch test

Abstract

This paper deals with the investigation of friction and wear mechanisms involved when scratching parallel to fiber orientation of unidirectional glass fiber reinforced polymers (UD-GFRP) composite. A single indenter scratch test (SST) was performed at room temperature and constant sliding speed, using high speed steel conical indenter. The dominant damage modes owing to SST were inspected at different attack angle and load using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The apparent friction and the damage modes were investigated as function of the test parameters, particularly, the attack angle and the normal load. The experimental findings reveal that the attack angle has a most important role in controlling apparent friction if compared with applied normal load. However the wear mechanisms were more sensitive to both attack angle and normal load. The correlation between wear modes and tribological parameters was emphasized and the scratch map was parallel to fiber orientation built. Six domains were identified and the different wear mechanism transitions were detailed.