Analysis of friction and wear performance of C/C-SiC composites

The carbon/silicon carbide composites (C/C-SiC) were prepared by chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) method, and the braking disks with different density and component content were finally obtained. The friction and wear performance of the C/C-SiC composites were investigated. It was obtained that, the coefficient of friction was 0.23, the friction stability was 0.43, the liner wear rate was 9.3 μm·cycle^-1, and the weight wear rate was 2.6 mg·cycle^-1. The friction coefficient and stability were significantly improved by about 70% and the fluctuation range of friction coefficient decreased with increasing the material density from 1.6 g/cm³ to 2.2 g/cm³ and increasing the carbon content from 35% to 55%, by contrast, the result was opposite with increasing SiC content. The C/C-SiC composites were not sensitive to the braking number, which demonstrated a good stability of friction. The continuous braking test of C/C-SiC disks suggested nearly constant curves of the coefficient of friction, which demonstrated the good stability of this friction material against fading. The wear quality of friction surfaces for C/C-SiC disks was analyzed finally, and the result indicated that the wear quality was in the range of the aviation standard.