Contact fatigue and wear behaviour of bismaleimide polymer subjected to fretting loading under various temperature conditions

Cracking and wear induced by fretting is a critical problem for industrial composite structures. Thermosetting bismaleimide resin is a promising material due to its good mechanical and thermal properties. The effect of temperature regarding fretting cracking and fretting wear is presently investigated. The temperature effect on crack initiation and propagation is quantified combining experiments and modelling. The fretting wear is explained using a friction energy wear approach. A bilinear evolution of wear volume versus the dissipated energy is identified and related to a protective third body layer. These various damage evolutions are compared to the viscoelastic properties of the polymer.

Research highlights
► The influence of temperature on fretting sliding, cracking and wear behaviours of thermoset Bismaleimide polymer has been investigated taking into account its visco-elastic properties (DMA analysis).
► Temperature by decreasing the elastic modulus and increasing the friction coefficient extends the partial slip domain. Temperature decreases the fretting cracking endurance. A reverse method is applied to extrapolated fatigue cracking data from the fretting data.
► The wear volume versus friction dissipated energy evolution is bilinear and related to the third body structure which itself depends on temperature.