Effects of oil absorption on the wear behaviors of carbon/epoxy woven composites

Carbon/epoxy woven composites are prominent wear-resistant materials due to the strength, stiffness, and thermal conductivity of carbon fabric. In this study, the effect of oilabsorption on the wear behaviors of carbon/epoxy woven composites was investigated. Wear tests were performed on dry and fully oil-absorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites. The worn surfaces of the test specimens were examined via scanning electron microscopy to investigate the wear mechanisms of oil-absorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites. It was found that the oil absorption rate was 0.14% when the carbon/epoxy woven composites were fully saturated. In addition, the wear properties of the carbon/epoxy woven composites were found to be affected by oilabsorption. Specifically, the friction coefficients of dry and oil-absorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites were 0.25-0.30 and 0.55-0.6, respectively. The wear loss of the oilabsorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites was $3.52{\times}10^{-2}\;cm^3$, while that of the dry carbon/epoxy woven composites was $3.52{\times}10^{-2}\;cm^3$. SEM results revealed that the higher friction coefficient and wear loss of the oil-absorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites can be attributed to the existence of broken and randomly dispersed fibers due to the weak adhesion forces between the carbon fibers and the epoxy matrix.