Frictional and worn behavior of inter-carbon fiber tows

In order to quantitatively evaluate the worn degree of carbon fiber tows and investigate the mechanism of friction and wear between carbon fiber tows, a frictional simulation device was designed to study the effects of frictional cycle times, loading force and frictional angle on the abrasion of carbon fiber tows. The worn degree was characterized by comparing tensile strength at break, surface morphology and the amount of hairiness of the carbon fiber tows before and after friction. The results show that the wear of carbon fiber tows gradually increases with the increase of frictional cycle times and loading force. As the frictional angle changes from 90° to 30°, the tensile strength at break of the carbon fiber tows decreases slightly as the angle decreases. However, when the frictional angle is 0°, the tensile strength at break of the carbon fiber tows has a significant decrease. The wear mechanism of carbon fiber tows was explained by combining with fiber tow contact theory and viscous film indentation method. The results reveal that the contact area is the main factor causing the worn degree of fiber tows. The real contact area between fiber tows increases with the the loading force increasing and decreases with the frictional angle increasing.