Friction and wear characteristics of carbon fiber reinforced silicon carbide ceramic matrix (Cf/SiC) composite and zirconia (ZrO2) ceramic under dry condition

Abstract To investigate the tribological properties of C f /SiC composite with different fiber orientations and ZrO 2 with ground and polished surfaces, running-in tests under dry condition were conducted in a pin-to-disc apparatus. The results show that ground surfaces of ZrO 2 ceramic sliding against each fiber orientation exhibit more excellent tribological properties than the polished ones. The average coefficient of friction (COF), pin and disc wear rate decrease about 53.7%–63.3%, 59.4%–80.6% and 69.7%–88.5% respectively among all fiber orientations. Specifically, 90deg fiber orientation sliding against ground ZrO 2 surface exhibits the best excellent tribological property. Wear mechanism and the reason leading to the results are researched. The work firstly proposes ground surface scratch is a kind of surface texture which hugely affects material's tribological performance.