A new approach for the friction and wear characterisation of polymer fibres under dry, mixed, and hydrodynamic sliding conditions is developed. The production process of the tested polymer fibres is described and an introduction in fibre-reinforced concrete is given. Tribotesting is done on an optimised tribometer capable of measuring the friction and wear behaviour of polymer fibres with diameters of a few 100 µm under lubricated conditions. Three extruded polypropylene macro fibres with varying diameters are characterised under tribological conditions found in an industrial concrete mixing process. It is shown that detailed friction and wear data of polymer fibres can be gathered.
Based on the conventional pin-on-disc test method, a tribology test rig was adapted and optimized regarding its ability to characterize polymer fibers. The method is explained and first applications in the field of tribological characterization of single fibers are presented. The test sequence to investigate the polymer fibers (diameters of only a few 100 µm) is generated in such a way that data can be recorded continuously as a function of time in the wear range from a few 10 µm to several 100 µm even during the first few minutes. The test mode starts by applying line load and dynamically progresses to area load by changing the contact area during the measurement. It is shown that single fibers can be characterized with respect to their friction and wear properties in different tribological systems. The dependence of the wear rates of fiber material, surface roughness of the counter bodies and lubrication rates is presented.
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