Materials and Design 30 (2009) 1042–1049

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Materials and Design

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Prediction on tribological properties of carbon fiber and TiO2 synergistic

reinforced polytetrafluoroethylene composites with artificial neural networks
Jiahua Zhu a, Yijun Shi b, Xin Feng a,*, Huaiyuan Wang a, Xiaohua Lu a
a
State Key Laboratory of Materials-oriented Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, No. 5 XinMoFan Road, Nanjing 210009, China
b
Department of Chemistry and Materials Science, Institute of Science, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, the artificial neural network is applied to predict tribological properties of carbon fiber and
Received 8 May 2008 TiO2 particle synergistic reinforced polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) composites. Based on a measured
Accepted 21 June 2008 database of PTFE composites, wear volume loss and friction coefficient are successfully calculated
Available online 28 June 2008
through a well-trained artificial neural network. Results show that the predicted data are well acceptable
when comparing with the real test values under different friction conditions (slight, moderate and rigor-
Keywords: ous test conditions), and friction coefficient hold a closer correlation with the input parameters than wear
Artificial neural network (G)
volume loss. Three-dimensional plots for tribological properties as a function of test conditions and mate-
Tribological properties (E)
Polytetrafluoroethylene composites (A)
rial compositions were established. Improved results can be obtained from a further optimization of the
network and an increasing availability of measurement data.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction cro-particles is considered in this work to deeply improve the tri-

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), an engineering plastic, has been
widely used in industrial fields because of its excellent thermal sta-
bility, good solvent resistance and low friction coefficient. How-
ever, due to its high wear rate at normal friction conditions and
poor mechanical properties, a lot of research have been made to
decrease the wear of PTFE and improve the mechanical properties
by means of incorporation with varies kind of fillers, such as fibers
[1–3], fine particles [4–6], whiskers [7–9] and so forth. Fibers are
often used to increase the shear strength of PTFE composites and
thus improve the anti-wear ability, proper particulate nano-fillers
contribute positively towards the development of a thin and uni-
form transfer film and the better adhesion of transfer film to the
counterpart during sliding [10], which play a crucial role in the
enhancement of wear resistance [11].
Moreover, fibers serve as a skeleton structure in the matrix for
its specific aspect ratio and there are always many sub-regions in
polymer matrix that fibers cannot reach. In order to improve the
integrated properties of composites, micro-scale fillers, such as fine
particles, nano-particles and whiskers are often introduced to rein-
force the poorer fiber-content areas. Thus, the mechanical proper-
ties would be strengthened, such as hardness and compressive
strength, which are proved to be helpful in improving tribological
properties [12]. Therefore, incorporation with both fibers and mi-
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 25 83588063.
E-mail address: xfeng@njut.edu.cn (X. Feng).
bological properties.
An artificial neural network (ANN) is a powerful mathematical
tool and has been successfully used in many fields, such as stock
market [13,14], medical diagnosis [15–18], chemical research
[19,20] and material science [21–23]. Inspired by the biological
nervous system, the neural networks are composed of elements
(neurons) operating in parallel. The transfer function between
the elements, which is often nonlinear, plays an important role
in the prediction quality and a definite function of this ANN can
be trained through adjusting the values of weights.
As in nature, it is really a complex condition in friction system
and a normal method to construct an accurate relationship be-
tween testing parameters and tribological performances is almost
unavailable. Since ANN behaves like a ‘‘black box”, the main char-
acteristic of this technique is that the trained network is directly
constructed by samples without any preceding assumptions. Once
a well performed network is set up, the correlation between tribo-
logical properties and characteristic parameters, e.g. material com-
positions, friction conditions and mechanical properties would be
established, which is of great important for designing materials
to satisfy various requirements. In addition, new results could be
gained through calculation with ANN, which may significantly re-
duce large amount of repeated experimental work. For this reason,
the ANN was introduced in this field of material science [24].
In order to obtain a well performed neural network, a certain
amount of research work should be done firstly, such as training
algorithm, network structure, number of training data and other
parameters. In this work, a back propagation neural network was

0261-3069/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2008.06.045
 J. Zhu et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 1042–1049 1043

Table 1 on a Universal Tester (Model CMT4254) at room temperature

Composition of CF/TiO2 reinforced PTFE composites and their physical characteristics and the beam rate was 1 mm/min. Each mixture was molded into
No. PTFE CF TiO2(wt.%) Density Hardness Compressive a block with the size of 10  10  30 mm, all the values were aver-
(wt.%) (wt.%) (g/cm3) (–) strength (MPa) ages of four measurements.
1 92 5 3 2.16 60.0 20.14 Fig. 1 gives the fracture surface of PTFE composites, which was
2 80 5 15 2.23 59.4 20.74 obtained at room temperature by an impact test machine (Model
3 84 10 6 2.11 61.8 20.60 XJJ-5). Fig. 1b shows that TiO2 particles dispersed uniformly in
4 78 10 12 2.15 64.4 18.14
5 76 15 9 2.06 66.0 22.42
the PTFE matrix between carbon fibers, which were expected to
6 74 20 6 1.96 64.6 22.61 reinforce the sub-region of CF/PTFE composites. As seen in Fig.
7 78 20 12 2.00 65.0 20.60 1a, TiO2 particles were covered by some threadlike material, it sug-
8 72 25 3 1.86 67.6 21.94 gested that a significant interaction may exist between TiO2 parti-
9 60 25 15 1.89 66.2 16.44
cles and PTFE matrix.
10 95 5 0 2.15 59.1 20.83
11 85 15 0 2.01 62.8 23.69
12 75 25 0 1.85 66.5 27.36 3. Configuration of artificial neural network

The major process of creating an ANN can be summarized in the

trained and tested using a database of PTFE composites reinforced following steps:
by carbon fiber and TiO2 particles. Once the network is well opti-
mized, new data in the same knowledge domain would be put into 1. Collect experimental data: sufficient training data are necessary
the trained network and output reasonable solutions. for a complex network.
2. Training of the neural network: appropriate algorithm and
2. Materials preparation and experiment good-designed network structure play a key role in the predic-
tion quality.
Table 1 summarizes the details of PTFE based composites which 3. Test of the trained neural network: evaluate the network
were studied in this case. The powder of PTFE with an average size performance.
of 25–100 lm was supplied by Dupont (7A-J, commercial product). 4. Simulate and predict with trained neural network: get predic-
The carbon fiber amount was in the range of 5–25 wt.%, with an tion results.
average diameter of 20 lm and 100 lm in length. The titanium
dioxide (TiO2) with an average of 1 lm was commercially Fig. 2 shows the conventional construction of ANN, it consists
obtained. three layers: input layer, hidden layer and output layer, they are
The friction and wear tests were conducted on an M-2000 mod- tightly connected through transfer functions. Each layer has differ-
el friction and wear tester. The counter-face material was steel 45. ent number of neurons and is connected with weigh factors. Sev-
Sliding was performed under dry friction and ambient conditions eral measuring details of current research, i.e. material
(temperature: 25 °C, humidity: 50 ± 5%) at sliding velocities of composition, friction condition and mechanical properties are se-
0.47, 0.69 or 1.39 m/s, normal loads of 100, 200, 300 or 400 N. lected as input parameters, and wear volume loss and friction coef-
The test time was 60 min. The friction force was measured with ficient are chosen as output parameters, as seen in Table 2.
!
a torque shaft, provided with strain gauges, and the coefficient of X
m
ðnþ1Þ ðnþ1Þ ðnÞ
friction was calculated from the friction force. Before each test, Xj ¼f W ji X i ð1Þ
the surfaces of each specimen and counterpart ring were polished i¼1

with 800 grit paper to a surface roughness of 0.2–0.4 lm and were 1

cleaned with alcohol. At last, the wear volume loss was calculated
out from the loss of each specimen’s weight.
The density, hardness and compressive strength of each of the
components were given in Table 1. The hardness was measured
using a LX-D sclerometer. The compress tests were carried out
fðxÞ ¼ ð2Þ
1 þ ex
The ANN works like a ‘‘black box”, set a vector to the input layer and
after a series of complex calculations in the hidden layers, results
would be exported in the output layer. The calculation procedure
in each layer is described in Fig. 3, each layer takes the output of

Fig. 1. SEM micrograph of CF (10 wt.%)/TiO2 (9 wt.%)/PTFE composites.

1044 J. Zhu et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 1042–1049

Input layer Hidden layers Output layer

Material compositions:
(1) PTFE
(2) CF
Wear volume loss
(3) TiO2

Friction conditions:
(1) Sliding speed
(2) Load

Mechanical properties:
Friction coefficient
(1) Hardness
(2) Compressive strength

Connect with weight factor

Neuron

Fig. 2. The schematic construction of an artificial neural network with input, output and testing parameters.

Table 2 0.8
Input and output parameters of artificial neutral network CGB
0.7 SCG
Input
Mean relative error

Material compositions PTFE (60–95 wt.%) OSS

0.6
CF (5–25% wt.%) GDX
TiO2 (0–15 wt.%) 0.5 GDA
Friction conditions Sliding speed (0.47–1.39 m/s) BFG
Load (100–400 N) 0.4
Mechanical properties Hardness (59.1–67.6)
Compressive strength (16.4–27.4 MPa) 0.3
Output 0.2
Wear characteristics Friction coefficient
wear volume loss (mm3) 0.1

0.0

n Fig. 4. A comparison of mean relative error (R) of various training algorithms.

X1 n
Wj 1 Neuron
n
X2 n
Wj 2 ber of hidden layer, Nh1, Nh2, . . . , Nhn denote the number of neuron
in the hidden layer respectively. Taking 7–[15:10:5]–1 for exam-

Σ
ple, which means 7 input parameters in the input layer, 15, 10, 5
n
neurons in the three hidden layers, respectively, and 1 output
Xm − 1 n +1 parameter in the output layer. A tan-sigmoid transfer function
Xj
n was used between the input layer and hidden layer as well as hid-
W j (m−1)
den layers, to avoid limiting the output to a small range, a linear
n
Xm n transfer function (purelin) was employed between the hidden
W jm Transfer function layer and output layer. The learning procedure is based on the gra-
dient search and generally evaluated by mean square errors be-
Fig. 3. A schematic description of the relationship between the input and output tween the predicted and desired values, which can be described
vectors of one neuron. as (Eq. (3))

1 Xm
E¼ ðy  Pt Þ2 ð3Þ
2m t¼1 t
preceding layer as an input, weights and transfer function are intro- !
duced in the following way: (Eq. (1)), in which X j
ðnþ1Þ
means the out- ðnÞ
X
m
ðnÞ ðn1Þ
ðnÞ Xj ¼f W ji X i ð4Þ
put of neuron j in the (n + 1)th layer, X i is the output of neuron i in i¼1
ðnþ1Þ
the nth layer and W ji represents the weight from neuron i in the ðlastÞ ðlastÞ ðlastÞ ðlastÞ
dj ¼ ðyj  X j ÞX j ð1  X j Þ ð5Þ
nth layer to neuron j in the (n + 1)th layer. In addition, f(x) is a trans-
fer function and can be described as (Eq. (2)) in this work. DW jiðlastÞ ¼g
ðlastÞ ðlast1Þ
dj X j þl DW ðlastÞðpreviousÞ
ji ð6Þ
Since the ANN structure has a great influence on prediction !
ðnÞ
X
r
ðnþ1Þ ðnþ1Þ ðnÞ ðnÞ
quality, varied number of hidden layer structures would be taken dj ¼ dk W kj X i ð1  X j Þ ð7Þ
into consideration in the follow. For the convenience of descrip- k¼1
tion, a simple code was introduced to describe the ANN structure DW ðnÞ ðnÞ ðn1Þ ðnÞðpreviousÞ
þ lDW ji
ji ¼ gdj X j ð8Þ
as follows: Nin–[Nh1:Nh2:. . .:Nhn]n–Nout, Nin and Nout refer to the ðnewÞ ðpreviousÞ
number of neurons in the input and output layer and n is the num- DW ¼ W W ð9Þ
 J. Zhu et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 1042–1049 1045

Table 3 For researching such kind of problems, a large amount of exper-

The algorithms used for training network with descriptions
imental results are necessary to get a well-performing neural net-
Algorithms Description work, in addition of the number of neurons in each layer, the
CGB–Powell-Beale conjugate The converge rate is generally faster network structure, training algorithm, transfer function and other
gradient algorithm parameters. Once a trained network sets up, new data from the
SCG–scaled conjugate Combine credible interval method and conjugate same knowledge domain can be imported to the network and get
gradient algorithm gradient algorithm with no line search
GDX–adaptive learning rate Faster than basic gradient decent algorithm with
good results. In addition, ANN is suitable for modeling complex,
algorithm momentum, only for batch mode training non-linear and multi-dimensional systems, which built directly
GDA–Adaptive learning rate Slower than GDX without momentum from experimental data and any prior assumptions of the relation-
algorithm ship is unnecessary.
BFG–BFGS quasi-Newton Faster than conjugate gradient method for
The ANN programs were written in MATLAB language, the data-
method converge rate but have to estimate Hessian matrix
OSS–one-step secant method Between conjugate gradient method and BFGS and sets were divided into two parts, one for training the network and
suitable for large network the other for predicting, both parts were selected randomly. The
training part is used to adjust the weights between the neurons
until the desired error level or maximum iteration is reached. Then,
the network was evaluated by the predicting part. In order to esti-
To meet the desired error level, weights change incessantly in a
mate the quality of trained network, two criteria were often intro-
specific way and details of the process are as follows [25]:
duced as follows [26,27]:
1. Import a set of samples X (x1, x2, x3, . . . , xm) to the input layer;
2. Calculation begins between layers with this formula: (Eq. (4)), if 1 XM
1 XN
jOp ðiÞ  OðiÞj
R¼ ð10Þ
Xj
ðlastÞ
(predicted data) fits yj (measured data) well (desired error M j¼1 N i¼1 OðiÞ
level reached), training stops and we can test the trained net- P
N
work. Else, go to next step. ½Op ðiÞ  OðiÞ2
ðlastÞ i¼1
3. For the last layer, (Eq. (5)), dj is a modification factor used to B¼1 ð11Þ
rectify the weights in the output layer. Then (Eq. (6)), g and l PN
½Op ðiÞ  Oave 2
keep constant in the training procedure. i¼1
4. For layers 1(last-1), (Eqs. (7) and (8)).
5. (Eq. (9)), a series of new weights [W(new)] can be got through the
above steps.
6. Repeat calculation from step 2 to step 5 with W(new) until the
desired error level is achieved or the maximum iteration is 1.0
reached. Programs used in this work are based on MATLAB 6.5. a
Output: friction coefficient
0.8
Mean relative error

Output: Wear volume loss

a
0.5 0.6
7-[25]1-1
7-[50]1-1
0.4
Mean relative error

7-[15:5]2-1 0.4
7-[20:10]2-1
0.3 7-[15:10:5]3-1
7-[20:10:5]3-1
0.2
7-[16:8:6:4]4-1
0.2 7-[18:9:6:3]4-1 0.0
0 30 60 90 120 150
0.1 Number of training datasets

0.0 b
Fraction of test data sets [%] B>0.9

100
Hidden layer structure
b 80
Fraction of test data sets [%] B>0.9

100
7-[25]1-1
7-[50]1-1 60
80 7-[15:5]2-1
7-[20:10]2-1 40
60 7-[15:10:5]3-1
7-[20:10:5]3-1 Output: Friction coefficient
40 20
7-[16:8:6:4]4-1
Output: Wear volume loss
7-[18:9:6:3]4-1
20 0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240
0 Number of training datasets

Fig. 6. (a) Dependence of mean relative error (R) on the number of training datasets
Fig. 5. (a) A comparison of mean relative error (R) of various neural network for friction coefficient and wear volume loss, respectively, and (b) dependence of
configurations, and (b) fraction of test datasets (B > 0.9) using different neural fraction of test datasets (B > 0.9) on the number of training datasets for friction
network configurations. coefficient and wear volume loss, respectively.
1046 J. Zhu et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 1042–1049

(1) Mean relative error
Eq. (10), where Op(i) is the ith predicted value and O(i) is ith
measured value, M represents the repeated times while N is the
number of test data. Apparently, the lower value of R exhibits,
the better performance of the network gets.
(2) Coefficient of determination B
Eq. (11), where Oave is the average value of O(i). The coefficient B
describes the fit of the output of ANN with the actual measured
data. Higher B indicates a better prediction capability of the
network.
4. Optimization of the ANN
4.1. Effect of algorithms
In this case, a simple network structure (7–[50]–1) was selected
in order to compare the prediction performance with different
algorithms. It is well known that different algorithms fit for differ-
ent problems. Therefore, choosing an appropriate algorithm is nec-
essary here. Meanwhile, mean relative error is introduced as
criteria to choose the most suitable algorithm in this problem. As
shown in Fig. 4, SCG performs the best among six algorithms and
CGB follows, which is opposite to the conclusion obtained from
previous work [26]. In this work, SCG will be used as candidate
for further optimization of the ANN. Details about the mentioned
algorithms were described in Table 3.
4.2. Effect of ANN structure
As discussed above, not only the training algorithm, but also the
network structure has great influence on the prediction quality.
According to previous work [26], eight different structures would
be taken into consideration based on the algorithm of SCG. The re-
sults are compared in Fig. 5a and b. Obviously, the 7–[15:10:5]3–1
structure shows an outstanding result with 90% of coefficient of B
in the range of 0.9–1 and the lowest mean relative error, the qual-
ity of prediction is clearly improved when compared to previous
work, in which the highest reported fraction of test data of
B > 0.9 was only 52% [26] and 66% [27], respectively.
In this case, it is interesting to find that structures contains one
or two hidden layers perform terrible prediction quality, the frac-
tion of test datasets of B > 0.9 is at a low level, usually under 20%
and mean relative error is relatively higher, as shown in Fig. 5a
and b. However, when the number of hidden layer increased to
three or four, the fraction of test datasets of B > 0.9 increased shar-
ply and the maximum point of 90% reached with the definite struc-
ture of 7–[15:10:5]3–1. After that, the fraction of test datasets of
B > 0.9 gradually decreased as the hidden layer or number of

3.0 0.30
Wear volume loss [mm3 ]

2.5 0.25
Friction coefficient

2.0 0.20

1.5 0.15

1.0 0.10

0.5 0.05

0.0 0.00
400 1.2 1.4 100 0.6
300
200 0.6 0.8 1.0 [m/s] 200 1.0
0.8
/s]
300 1.2
Load
100 0.4 peed Load
400 1.4 ee d [ m
[N] ng s [N ] g sp
Slidi Slidi
n

Fig. 7. Prediction results: (a) wear volume loss, and (b) friction coefficient as a function of testing conditions (load and sliding speed) for a PTFE composites (PTFE content:
72 wt.% carbon fiber content: 25 wt.% TiO2 content: 3 wt.%). Measured datasets are also plotted with error bars for contrast.

a 4 b 0.30

0.25
Wear volume loss [mm ]
3

Friction coefficient

3
0.20

2 0.15

0.10
1
0.05

0 0.00
400 1.4 100 0.6
300 1.2 0.8
1.0 200
0.8 1.0
Load 200 0.6 d [m/s] Load 300 1.2 [m/s]
[N] 100 0.4 spee [N] 400 1.4 peed
i ng ng s
Sli d Slidi

Fig. 8. Prediction results: (a) wear volume loss, and (b) friction coefficient as a function of testing conditions (load and sliding speed) for a PTFE composites (PTFE content:
74 wt.%, carbon fiber content: 20 wt.%, TiO2 content: 6 wt.%). Measured datasets are also plotted with error bars for contrast.
 J. Zhu et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 1042–1049 1047

neuron further expanded. It is reasonable to recommend that a and the percentage of B in the range of 0.9–1 on the training data-
multi-hidden-layer structure (i.e. three hidden layers) is suitable sets are displayed in Fig. 6a and b, respectively. Apparently, the
for this problem. prediction quality increases dramatically with the increase of num-
During the training procedure, it was found that the conver- ber of training datasets. The results of two different parameters
gence rate had a complex relationship with the ANN structure. (wear volume loss and friction coefficient) as output on the same
Generally, a simpler ANN structure leads to a quicker convergence training database were fitted by the dashed line, and it is expected
rate. In this work, 7–[50]–1 exhibits the fastest convergence rate that, when the training data reaches the number of 120, most of
and 7–[18:9:6:3]–1 plays the slowest. the test data B-values of friction coefficient will fall in the range
of 0.9–1.0. However, it needs more than 180 training data to obtain
4.3. Effect of number of training data sets the same prediction quality of wear volume loss.
In other words, the ANN structure using friction coefficient as
The prediction quality is closely related to the number of train- output would obtain better prediction performance than employ-
ing datasets [28]. The dependence of both the mean relative error R ing wear volume loss as output with the same number of training

a 1.5 b
0.40
Wear volume loss [mm ]
3

1.2 0.36

Friction coefficient
0.32
0.9
0.28
0.6
0.24
0.3
0.20

0.0 0.16
25 15 25 15
20 12 20 12
15 9 9
6 CF [ 15 6
CF [ 10 3 ] 3 ]
wt% 5 0 [wt% w t% 10 5 0 [w t%
] TiO2 ] T i O 2

c d
3.0 0.24
Wear volume loss [mm ]
3

2.5 0.22
Friction coefficient

2.0 0.20

0.18
1.5
0.16
1.0
0.14
0.5
0.12
0.0
5 12
15 0.10
10 9 5 15
15 6 10 12
CF [ 20 3 ] 9
wt% 25 0 [wt% CF [ 15 3
6
% ]
] T iO2 wt% 20 0 [w t
] 25 TiO 2

e 100 f 0.12
0.11
Friction coefficient
Wear volume loss [mm ]
3

80
0.10
0.09
60
0.08
40 0.07
0.06
20
0.05

0 0.04
15 5 15
5 10 12 10 12
9 9
15 6 15 6 ]
CF [ 20 3 ] CF [ 20 3 [wt%
wt% 25 0 [wt% wt% 25 0
Ti O 2
] TiO 2 ]

Fig. 9. Prediction results of wear properties (wear volume loss and friction coefficient) as a function of material compositions (PTFE content: 60–95 wt.%, carbon fiber
content: 5–25 wt.%, TiO2 content: 0–15 wt.%) for various testing conditions (sliding speed and load): 0.47 m/s, 100 N for (a) and (b); 0.69 m/s, 200 N for (c) and (d); 1.4 m/s,
400 N for (e) and (f).
1048 J. Zhu et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 1042–1049
datasets. Therefore, it can be inferred that friction coefficient may
have a closer relationship with the input parameters than wear
volume loss. And also, the difference of sample distribution may
account for this result, since the value of friction coefficient varies
in a small range, from 0.069 to 0.315 in this case, and weights can
be easily fit the relationship between the input and output data.
When it comes to wear volume loss, the values scatter in a wider
range between 0.19 and 76.0, it is relatively difficult to adjust the
weights to meet all the values perfectly in the output layer.
5. Prediction and analysis
Once a sufficiently trained ANN has been set up, new results can
then be obtained by calculation through the ANN without time-
costing experiments.
The prediction results of wear volume loss and friction coeffi-
cient as a function of testing conditions (sliding speed and load)
for different compositions (PTFE content = 72 wt.%, carbon fiber
content = 25 wt.%, TiO2 content = 3 wt.%; PTFE content = 74 wt.%,
carbon fiber content = 20 wt.%, TiO2 content = 6 wt.%) are dis-
played, respectively, in Figs. 7 and 8, using a form of 3D wire frame.
In addition, measured results are plotted as black dots with error
bar in the 3D plane. Both figures show that the prediction results
are very acceptable.
In practical application, the working condition is very complex.
For the convenience of description, we can simply divide all the
existing conditions into three levels: slight, moderate and rigorous.
To verify the suitability of this trained ANN in prediction perfor-
mance at different testing conditions, three levels of prediction
conditions are also introduced: slight level of sliding speed and
load (0.47 m/s, 100 N), moderate level (0.69 m/s, 200 N) and rigor-
ous level (1.4 m/s, 400 N). The prediction results of tribological
properties (wear volume loss and friction coefficient) for the com-
bination of carbon fiber and TiO2 at varied testing conditions are
displayed in Fig. 9. Comparing with the measured data, which
are plotted as black dots with error bar, the prediction quality is
in a very acceptable level in all conditions, which makes a solid
proof for confirming this ANN is suitable in such systems.
Furthermore, synergistic reinforced effects of carbon fiber and
TiO2 in PTFE matrix are obtained. As seen in Fig. 9a, c and e optimal
compositions with best anti-wear capacity obtained at different
testing conditions (slight level: PTFE content = 77 wt.%, carbon fiber
content = 20 wt.%, TiO2 content = 3 wt.%; moderate level: PTFE con-
tent = 79 wt.%, carbon fiber content = 15 wt.%, TiO2 content =
6 wt.%; rigorous level: PTFE content = 72 wt.%, Carbon fiber con-
tent = 25 wt.%, TiO2 content = 3 wt.%). The lowest friction coefficient
can also be got, respectively at different testing conditions (slight le-
vel: PTFE content = 75 wt.%, Carbon fiber content = 25 wt.%, TiO2
content = 0 wt.%; moderate level: PTFE content = 69 wt.%, carbon fi-
ber content = 25 wt.%, TiO2 content = 6 wt.%; rigorous level:
PTFE content = 75 wt.%, carbon fiber content = 25 wt.%, TiO2 con-
tent = 0 wt.%).
The concave 3D wire surfaces of Fig. 9a, c and e indicate that,
the incorporation with TiO2 particles in CF/PTFE composite would
effectively improve the anti-wear capacity. Synergistic effect of
carbon fiber and sub-micro TiO2 particle reinforced PPS composites
was also reported [29] and the best wear resistance was found for
PPS with carbon fiber (15 vol.%) and TiO2 (5 vol.%), which is in good
agreement with current work. Furthermore, the friction-reducing
effect is not obvious with the incorporation of TiO2 particle, as seen
in Fig. 9b, d, and f. Since PTFE acquires relatively low hardness, the
hard TiO2 particle tends to lodge in the matrix during sliding in-
stead of serving as ‘‘Micro-rolling” in the sliding surface [29]. Thus,
TiO2 particle helps to develop the toughness and stiffness of PTFE
composites rather than to play the role of friction-reducing mate-
rial, which was well proved by the experimental results (as seen in
Table 1).
It is true that the ANN serves as a powerful mathematic tool in
predicting new results in the same knowledge domain to a certain
degree. However, as we know about the ‘‘black box” fashion of
ANN, the only information can we get is the results and the de-
tailed procedure of training and predicting are unavailable. There-
fore, the explicit relationship between the input parameters and
output parameters could not be obtained.
6. Conclusion
The ANN has shown excellent performance when introduced to
predict tribological properties for the fiber and particle synergistic
reinforced composites. Based on a well-trained ANN, which is
trained with material compositions, mechanical properties and
testing conditions as input parameters, satisfactory results could
be obtained. By expanding the number of training datasets and fur-
ther optimizing the ANN configuration, the predictive accuracy
would be improved, which is expected to be helpful in designing
polymer composites.
In addition, this method is proved to be powerful when used in
different test conditions, good predictive results could be obtained
whether at slight level, moderate level or rigorous level. Also, a
comparison of predictive quality for wear volume loss and friction
coefficient as outputs, respectively, is studied. It is reasonable to
recommend that friction coefficient hold a closer correlation with
the input parameters than wear volume loss.
Furthermore, lots of useful data obtained from a well-trained
neural network can be applied without performing long and costly
experiments. Therefore, the ANN is a helpful mathematical tool in
material design, property investigation of polymer composites.
Acknowledgements
Authors wish to acknowledge the supports from the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20676062, and
20376032) and National High-Tech Research Development
Program (863 Program: 2003AA333010, and 2006AA03Z455) and
the Tribology Science Fund of National Tribology Laboratory
(SKLT02-2).
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