Konstantinos Poulios

Coefficient of Friction Measurements for Thermoplastics and Fibre Composites Under Low Sliding Velocity and High Pressure

Friction materials for typical brake applications are normally designed considering thermal stability as the major performance criterion. There are, however, brake applications with very limited sliding velocities, where the generated heat is insignificant. In such cases it is possible that friction materials which are untypical for brake applications, like thermoplastics and fibre composites, can offer superior performance in terms of braking torque, wear resistance and cost than typical brake linings. In this paper coefficient of friction measurements for various thermoplastic and fibre composite materials running against a steel surface are presented. All tests were carried out on a pin-on-disc test-rig in reciprocating operation at a fixed sliding speed and various pressure levels for both dry and grease lubricated conditions. Moreover, a generic theoretical framework is introduced in order to interpret the changes of friction observed during the running-in phase.

Size scale dependence of compressive instabilities in layered composites in the presence of stress gradients

The compressive strength of unidirectionally or layer-wise reinforced composite materials in direction parallel to their reinforcement is limited by micro-buckling instabilities. Although the inherent compressive strength of a given material micro-structure can easily be determined by assessing its stability under a uniform compressive load, this is often not sufficient for predicting failure initiation within a larger structure. In cases, where the composite material micro-structure is locally subjected to strongly non-uniform loadings, compressive instabilities depend not only on the maximum compressive stress but also on spatial stress or strain gradients, rendering failure initiation size scale dependent. The present work demonstrates and investigates the aforementioned effect through numerical simulations of periodically layered structures with notches and holes under bending and compressive loads, respectively. The presented results emphasize the importance of the reinforcing layer thickness on the load carrying capacity of the investigated structures, at a constant volumetric fraction of the reinforcement. The observed strengthening at higher values of the relative layer thickness is attributed to the bending stiffness of the reinforcing layers.