Friction and Wear of Polymer
and Polymer Composites
Ahmed Abdelbary
Abstract Friction and wear of polymers and their composites introduce further
difficulty that polymers are simply affected by working conditions and sliding media.
The disagreement between friction in polymers and metallic friction is resulting
from the alterations in the elastic and plastic behavior of metallic materials and the
viscoelastic performance of polymeric materials. It is expected that, compared to
metals, polymers are easily to meet elastic distortion when in contact. The wear
mechanisms are described through extensive categories: abrasive, adhesive, surface
fatigue, and others. The influences controlling friction and wear of polymers are
broadly argued. There are various mechanisms governing the tribological behavior
of the polymer moving on metal tribosystems including transfer film, wear regimes,
and pv-limit. The basics of polymeric composites and how numerous compositions
and structures can affect their tribological behavior are explained.
Keywords Friction · Wear · Polymer · Polymer composites
1 Introduction
Polymer and polymer composites are being used progressively in numerous tribolog-
ical applications. This is essentially resulting from the fact that they have significantly
low resistance for friction and wear. For many reasons, tribology of polymeric mate-
rials and their composites is dissimilar from tribology of metallic materials. Polymer
materials are viscoelastic and consequently, their properties are time dependent.
Lubrication by external fluid, which typically applied in other types of materials, are
simply absorbed by polymers. However, it is an attractive area since polymers can
be altered by numerous physical and chemical processes to suit specific requests.
Therefore, they developed excellent applicants and very hopeful materials for engi-
neering with a capability to adjust their tribological behaviour. This results in several
tribosystems containing polymers, metals (or non-metals) in either sliding or rolling
interactions.
A. Abdelbary (B )
Egyptian Government, Alexandria, Egypt
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
H. Jena et al. (eds.), Tribology of Polymer and Polymer Composites for Industry 4.0,
Composites Science and Technology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3903-6_3
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