Experimental Evaluation of a Steady-State Model for the Wear of Particle-Filled Polymer Composite Materials

A model for the steady-state wear behavior of polymer composite materials, including the effects of preferential load support by and surface accumulation of wear-resistant filler particles, is further developed. It is shown that the resultant inverse rule-of-mixtures description of steady-state composite wear rate behavior is independent of the assumed form of filler contact pressure, though preferential load support does affect the degree of surface accumulation of filler particles that occurs. The validity of these descriptions of steady-state wear behavior and surface accumulation as functions of bulk filler volume fraction are investigated by experiments with copper particle-filled PTFE composites for bulk filler volume fractions from 0 to 40 percent. The applicability of the description of surface accumulation for this composite system was limited to bulk filler volume fractions less than 20 percent, a hypothesized result of transition in load-sharing between filler and matrix. The inverse rule-of-mixtures description of steady-state wear rate, however, was maintained over the full range of volume fractions investigated.