Friction and wear characteristics of recycled aerocomposite carbon fibre reinforced polypropylene composites

Incineration or disposal of carbon fiber waste from the aircraft industry lead to serious energy consumption and environmental pollution. The use of this waste as reinforcement is a wise approach to appreciate the high performance of the carbon fiber. In this study, the sliding wear and frictional behavior of recycled aerocomposites grade carbon fiber prepreg (rCFP) reinforced polypropylene prepared via melt compounding method using an internal mixer were studied. The samples were categorized into polypropylene reinforced by carbon fiber with resin (A) and carbon fiber without resin (B). Pin on disc method was utilized to evaluate the effect of rCFP content and fiber state on tribological performance of the composites. The results were supported by morphological analyses using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). It was found that polymer composites B for rCFP without resin exhibited better tribological performance than composites category-A. The addition of rCFP into polypropylene was observed to increase its wear resistance with minimum coefficient of friction was achieved at 3 wt. % of rCFP content for both polymer composites.