Tribological performance of hygrothermally aged UHMWPE hybrid composites

摘要

In this work, the effect of hygrothermal aging on friction and wear of water lubricated, Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) hybrid composites were evaluated. Graphene Oxide (GO), Nano Diamonds (ND) and Short Carbon Fibers (SCF) were used as reinforcements as they previously exhibited promising improvements in the tribological behavior of UHMWPE in water-lubricated sliding contacts. Hygrothermal aging and pin-on-disc tribological experiments were performed to evaluate the response of the UHMWPE composites. It was observed that the friction and wear of the composites were not significantly affected by the aging conditions, which was attributed to the structural integrity of the newly developed UHMWPE based hybrid composites.