Effects of resin contents, number of carbonization, graphitization, sliding speed, and oxidation on friction and wear behavior of carbon/carbon composite materials were investigated. Friction and wear tests were carried out under various sliding conditions. An experimental setup was designed and built in the laboratory. Stainless steel disks were used as the counterface material. Friction coefficient, temperature, and wear factor were measured with a data acquisition system. Wear surfaces were observed by the scanning electron microscope.
It has been shown that the average friction coefficient was increased with the sliding speed in the range of 1.43-6.10 m/s, but it was decreased in the range of 6.10-17.35 m/s. Specimens treated by different numbers of carbonization showed variations of friction coefficient. It was observed that friction coefficient of the graphitized specimen had high friction coefficient. Friction coefficient depended on the contribution of plowing and adhesive components. As the number of carbonization was increased, wear factor was reduced. Wear factor of the graphitized specimens dropped further. In the case of graphitized specimens, sliding speed had a large influence on wear behavior. When the experiments were conducted in nitrogen atmosphere, the wear factor was decreased to two thirds of the wear factor obtained in air. It is obvious that the difference in caused by the effect of oxidation.
Results of friction and wear tests were applied to a neural network system based on the backpropagation algorithm. A neural network may be a valuable tool for the prediction of tribological behavior of the carbon/carbon composite material if sample data are present.