Regular Article

A micromechanical scratch model to investigate wear mechanisms in UD-GFRP composites

¹ Laboratoire Génie Mécanique, École Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Monastir, Université de Monastir Monastir, Tunisia
² Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Jeddah, PO. Box 80327, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

^* e-mail: mzalislah@hotmail.com

Received: 29 June 2016
Accepted: 10 February 2018

Abstract

This study suggests a micromechanical approach to scrutinize the glass fiber reinforced polyester (GFRP) composite tribological behavior. A single indenter scratch test (SST) using spherical tip conical indenter was adopted. The 3D finite element (FE) model was developed into ABAQUS/Explicit commercial code. Both material behavior and damage of polyester matrix and glass fiber was modeled using the Johnson Cook behavior law. Nevertheless, the fiber/matrix interface behavior is described using the cohesive zone approach via the cohesive elements. The elementary wear mechanisms owing to the SST were appraised at different attack angle and normal load by the mean of scanning electron microscope (SEM). In this work, the material removal map was built to emphasize the correlation between the tribological parameters, particularly the attack angle and the normal load, and the material removal process. The numerical results emphasized the significant effects of the attack angle and the penetration depth on the transition of the wear mechanisms from ploughing to composite damage. The experimental wear mechanisms and the predicted elementary wear mechanisms seem to be in a good agreement.