Performance of unidirectional carbon fibre cloth/carbon composite laminates fabricated by hot-pressing

Unidirectional carbon fibre cloth/carbon composite laminates were fabricated by hot-pressing alternating stacks of unidirectional carbon fibre cloth and uniformly-spread powder mixtures of phenolic-resin coated nature graphite flakes and pitch. The effects of the contents of carbon fibre cloth on the density, porosity, flexural strength, friction and wear properties of the composite laminates were investigated by SEM, a friction-and-wear testing machine and a universal testing machine. Results showed that the sample with the best overall performance had a mass fraction of carbon fibre cloth of 50%. This material had a flexural strength of 112.2 MPa, a density of 1.72g/cm³, a friction coefficient of 0.28, and a wear rate of 3.68×10^-13m³ · N^-1 · m^-1. Failure behavior was pseudoplastic and there were a large number of fibre pullouts on the fracture surface. An increase of graphite content was favorable for the formation of a film during wear, which reduced the wear rate and resulted in a steady value of the coefficient of friction.