Effect of physical properties of Cu-Ni-graphite composites on tribological characteristics by grey correlation analysis

Cu-Ni-graphite composites are intended for using as switch slide baseplates materials in high-speed railways industrials. The tribological characteristics of Cu-Ni-graphite composites with different graphite content were affected by physical properties and were generated variation correspondingly. It is difficult to study the correlation degree between tribological characteristics and physical properties by the means of experiments. However, grey correlation analysis (GCA) is a suitable mathematic method for researching the correlation with each factor. In this study, Cu-Ni-graphite composites were prepared by powder metallurgy and the correlation degree between tribological characteristics (Cu-Ni-graphite composites slid against U75V steel) and physical properties were calculated by GCA method. The results showed that through the calculating by GCA method, compared with physical properties of Cu-Ni-graphite composites, the most effective way to reduce the friction coefficient is to improve the relative density as well as the increasing of hardness can also bring down the friction coefficient usefully. The best way to reduce wear rate is the increasing of work of rupture and flexural strength, when these two properties have a small amount of ascension, the wear rate would be rapidly decreasing. The GCA results could help to improve materials' performance and give reasonable advices to the following studies.