ABSTRACT
Carbon nanotubes are considered the best material in the field of composites because of their mechanical and tribological properties. In this study, carbon nanotubes coated metal was dispersed in aluminum, the base metal, to improve the wettability between aluminum and carbon nanotubes. The friction and wear behaviors of the aluminum-carbon nanotube coated metal, which is a nickel and copper composite, were investigated using a pin-on-disk wear tester under dry sliding and water lubricated conditions and evaluated using SEM and EDX analysis. All the results demonstrated that the addition of the carbon nanotubes coated metal significantly improved the wettability of CNTs in the aluminum. And the distribution of CNTs prevented the propagation of micro cracks on the surface of the aluminum base metal sample, resulting in enhanced friction characteristics and wear resistance of the nano composite. The composite exhibited lower friction coefficient and wear resistance under the water lubricated condition than the dry sliding condition. Although the lubrication and cooling effect of water contributed to the reduction of the friction coefficient of the composite, the separation of wear particles from the sliding surface changed the wear type from three-body to two-body, resulting in very high wear rate. Also the concentration of oxide under water lubricated condition contributed to the increase of the wear rate because the amount of oxide film removed in terms of thickness exceeded the critical thickness of real contact area.
ABSTRACT
The pores on the surface function as an outlet for wear particles and enhance the storage of lubricants, which improves lubrication effectiveness. Mesoporous SiO2 thin films were formed by the sol-gel and self-assembly methods to have a porous structure. One of the important issues in the manufacturing of the films involves the control of the porous structure to ensure proper mechanical properties. Mesoporous materials were manufactured with two surfactants, Pluronid Polyol (F127) and Cetyltrimethylammonium Bromide (CTABr). The pores were then exposed on the surface by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) and plasma-etching. Ball-on-disk tests with mesoporous SiO2 thin films on glass specimens were conducted. The results show that the friction coefficient and wear volume of a specimen with F127, which has a 8 nm pore size, are far lower than those of CTABr, which has a 3 nm pore size at both the dry condition and at boundary lubricated condition. This proves a significant dependency of friction and wear on pore size of mesoporous SiO2 thin films.
ABSTRACT
Since ceramic layers coated on machinery components inevitably experience the changes in their properties it is necessary to evaluate the characteristics of ceramic coating layers nondestructively for the reliable use of coated components and the remaining life prediction. To address such a need, in the present study, the ultrasonic backward radiation technique is applied to examine the very thin TiN ceramic layers coated on AISI 1045 steel or austenitic 304 steel substrate. Specifically, the ultrasonic backward radiation profiles have been measured with variations in specimen preparation conditions such as coating layer thickness and sliding loading. In the experiments performed in the current study, the peak angle and the peak amplitude of ultrasonic backward radiation profile varied sensitively according to two specimen preparation conditions. In fact, this result demonstrates a high possibility of the ultrasonic backward radiation as an effective tool for the nondestructive characterization of the TiN ceramic coating layers even in such a thin regime.