Study on water resistance and tribological behaviours of basalt fibre/acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber composites under water lubrication at various temperatures

Abstract

In this study, the effects of water ageing on characteristics and properties of basalt fibre (BF)/acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) composites were investigated, and the tribological behaviours of the composites that slide against the stainless-steel counterpart under water lubrication at 30–70 °C were the main focus. Results showed that with the water temperature increase, the hardness and tear strength of the water-aged samples decreased. Furthermore, both the friction coefficient (COF) and specific wear rate (W_s) of the composites increased with the temperature. The content and the orientation of BFs had no obvious effect on the COF, whereas the parallel-aligned BFs were effective at improving the wear resistance of the composites at both 30 °C and 70 °C.