Article

Journal of Reinforced Plastics

and Composites

Mechanical and tribological behaviors of 0(00) 1–9

! The Author(s) 2011
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DOI: 10.1177/0731684410394698
fibers jrp.sagepub.com

Shoufan Cao1, Hongtao Liu1, Shirong Ge1,2 and Gaofeng Wu1

Abstract
In this article, the basalt fibers were used to fill the UHMWPE because of their outstanding mechanical and tribological
performances. The UHMWPE composites with the filler content of 5–20 wt.% were prepared. Then, the mechanical and
tribological performances of the composites were tested. Also, the wear mechanism was analyzed. The results indicated
that the UHMWPE composites’ impact toughness was decreased when filled with the basalt fibers, but the strength,
hardness, and anti-indentation creep of the UHMWPE composites were improved. Under the same experimental
conditions, the friction coefficient of the UHMWPE composites filled with basalt fibers was decreased to some
extent, and the wear loss of the composites was significantly reduced. The analysis showed that the wear type of
the UHMWPE composites was changed when filled with the basalt fibers. So, the wear-resistant performance of the
UHMWPE composites was effectively enhanced.

Keywords
UHMWPE composites, basalt fibers, mechanical behaviors, friction, wear

content of particles or fibers to form the UHMWPE–

Introduction
Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)
is a kind of linear engineering thermoplastics and its
comprehensive performance is excellent.1 The main
outstanding properties of the UHMWPE are as fol-
lows: wear and impact resistance; resistance to chemical
corrosion and stress cracking; excellent self-lubricating
and electrical insulation; low-temperature tolerance;
anti-adhesion and anti-aging; safety and health, etc.
Displacement of carbon steel, stainless steel, bronze,
and other materials, the UHMWPE can be widely
used in textile, mining, chemical industry, packaging,
machinery, building, electrical, medical care, sports,
and other fields.2–10 As well as many excellent proper-
ties, there are some disadvantages.11–13 For example,
low surface hardness, strength and stiffness, poor
creep resistance, bad adhesive wear and fatigue wear
resistance, poor flow behavior and consequently diffi-
culty in processing, etc. In order to expand, availability
for applying it to some special applications to fit differ-
ent requests, the modification of the UHMWPE seems
to be extremely important.13,14 The addition of some
matrix composites is an effective method to significantly
increase the properties of UHMWPE. So, filling is one
of the main methods of modification at present.15,16
The importance of recycling of composite materials
and environmental issues shift the focus of using syn-
thetic fibers as reinforcement in composite materials to
natural fibers.5 The basalt fiber (BF) is a new fiber
appearing in recent years. It is made from natural
basalt ore and the raw material can be processed into
fiber through wire-drawing after melting. Because there
is no secondary pollution to the environment during the
manufacturing processes, the BF is also a new kind of
1
School of Materials Science and Engineering, China University of Mining
and Technology, China.
2
School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, China University of
Mining and Technology, China.
Corresponding author:
Hongtao Liu, School of Materials Science and Engineering, China
University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China
Email: liuht100@126.com

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2 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(00)
environmental protection material. The BF not only
owns high hardness and tensile strength, temperature,
water and corrosion resistance, but also owns superior
wear resistance and good chemical stability. So, the BF
is an ideal reinforcing material and the applicability of
the BF as a structural strengthening material is highly
expected.17–20 Therefore, this article studies the
UHMWPE’s modification that the UHMWPE is
filled with the BFs.
Experimental details
Sample preparation
The main raw materials used in the experiments were
UHMWPE powder and short-cut BFs. The molecular
weight of UHMWPE powder was 6,000,000 g/mol
and the average diameter of single BF was 12 mm and
the length was approximately 2 mm. The research
works showed that the impact toughness would be
deteriorated if the amount of the fillers was too large.
Generally speaking, the maximum weight percentages
of the fillers should not exceed 30%.21,22 In this
experiment, the weight percentages of the BFs were
0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%. First, the UHMWPE
powder and the BFs should be fully mixed. Then, the
mixture was poured into the prepared forming mold.
Finally, the mixtures were put into hot press in the
vacuum hot-pressing sinter furnace. The press
was heated up to a temperature of 200 C. At this
temperature, a pressure of 15 MPa was applied for a
period of 1.5 h.
Impact toughness test
As fillers always caused great decrease of the
UHMWPE composites’ impact strength, the experi-
ment first tested the composites’ impact toughness.
The impact test took the standard of ISO179-1982
(ISO, International Organization for Standardization)
as a reference. The sample’s size was 120  15  10 mm3
and each sample should be made a U-shaped notch.
The depth of the notch was 3.5 mm and the width
was 2 mm. The impact strength, ak, expressed in kilo-
joules per square meter, was calculated using the fol-
lowing equation:
Ak
ak ¼
b  dk
where Ak is the corrected energy, in Joules, absorbed by
breaking the test specimen, b the width, in millimeter,
of the test specimen, and dk the remaining thickness, in
millimeter, of the test specimen.
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Compression property test
In applications, wear-resistant materials were also
subjected to compressive stress. So, the experiment
tested the composites’ compression property. The com-
pression test took the standard of ISO604-2002 as a ref-
erence. The sample’s size was 10  10  5 mm3 and the
compression test was performed on an electronic univer-
sal testing machine and the test speed was 2 mm/min.
Ball indentation hardness test
In order to properly obtain the hardness of the com-
posites, the experiment tested the ball indentation hard-
ness of the UHMWPE composites. The UMT-2
tribometer was used to test the hardness and the test
took the standard of ISO2039-73 as a reference. The
indenter comprised a GCr15 steel ball and the diameter
of the ball was 5 mm. The initial load was 9.8 N and the
test load was 132 N. Measured depths of impression
and the ball indentation hardness could be calculated
using the following equation:23
Pmax
H¼ ð2Þ
Dhmax
where Pmax is the test load, in Newton, on the indenter,
D the diameter of the ball indenter, in millimeter, and
hmax the reduced depth of impression, in millimeter.
Indentation creep property test
The creep property of materials, to some extent, can be
reflected by indentation creep.24,25 So, the experiment
tested the indentation creep property of the UHMWPE
composites. The indenter comprised a GCr15 steel ball
and the diameter of the ball is 4 mm. The constant load
applied to the sample was 132 N for a period of 30 min.
In the process of ball indentation, when the load was
increased to 132 N, the indentation depth was set as
0 and the depth was noted.
Tribological property test
The tribological property of the composites was evalu-
ated on M-2000 wear tester. A block-on-ring apparatus
was constructed for the friction and wear tests. The block
of dimensions of 20  10  5 mm3 was made up of the
UHMWPE or the composites reinforced with BFs, and
ð1Þ the Ra used was of 0.3 mm. The counterface (ring of
40 mm diameter and 10 mm width) was made up of
AISI-1045. The hardness of the counterface was
HRC40-50 and the Ra used was of the range
0.11–0.13 mm. The condition was dry friction. The applied
load was 240 N and the sliding velocity was 0.42 m/s
during sliding. The friction time was 120 min.
Cao et al.
Results
The effects of the BFs on the impact toughness
As shown in Figure 1, the impact strength of UHMWPE
composites significantly decreased as the weight percent-
age of the BFs was increased. The impact strength of the
UHMWPE was 119.3 kJ. While the UHMWPE compos-
ite’s impact strength was 61.8 kJ when the weight per-
centage of the BFs was 20%, decreasing to almost half
of that of UHMWPE. The main reasons were as follows:
The continuity of the UHMWPE matrix was excellent,
so it could prevent or reduce the fracture of UHMWPE.
When reinforced with the BFs, on the one hand, the
continuity of the UHMWPE matrix was broken.
On the other hand, the addition of BFs inevitably
brought in defaults in the interfaces. When the
UHMWPE composites were subjected of stress, the
defaults would form weak points and expended. That
increased the brittleness of the UHMWPE composites.
So, the impact strength of the UHMWPE composites
was largely decreased with the content of BFs. In
order to maintain the UHMWPE’s excellent impact
toughness, the maximum weight percentage of the BFs
in the following experiments was 20%.
The effects of the BFs on the strength and hardness
The compression test indicated that there was no sig-
nificant yield point in the compression curve, as shown
in Figure 2. So, referring to the relevant standards, the
compression stress when the strain was 10% was taken
as the UHMWPE composites’ compressive strength.
Figure 1. The variation of the impact strength of UHMWPE composites with the weight percentage of BFs.
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3
As is shown in Figure 3, the compressive strength of
the UHMWPE composites increased significantly with
the increase of the content of BFs. Specifically, the
compressive strength of the UHMWPE composites
increased slowly when the fiber content was increased
from 0 to 5 wt.%. In contrast, the compressive strength
of the UHMWPE composites increased significantly
when the fibers content was increased from 5 to
15 wt.%. Additionally, the compressive strength of the
UHMWPE composites decreased slightly when the
fiber content was increased from 15 to 20 wt.%.
When the fiber content was 15 wt.%, the maximum
compressive strength of the UHMWPE composites
was 37 MPa, increasing the compressive strength of
the UHMWPE (which is 28 MPa) by 32%.
As is shown in Figure 4, the ball indentation hardness of
the UHMWPE composites increased with the increase of
the fiber content. After the fiber content was over 10 wt.%,
the ball indentation hardness of the UHMWPE compos-
ites increased dramatically as the fiber content was
increased. As the fiber content was 20 wt.%, the ball inden-
tation hardness of the UHMWPE composites was approx-
imately 52 MPa, increasing the ball indentation hardness
of the UHMWPE (which is 31 MPa) by 68%.
It was found from the above results that both the
strength and hardness of the UHMWPE composites
increased in a large degree with the increase of the BF
content. The main reasons are as follows: The strength
and hardness of the BFs were much higher than that of
the UHMWPE. When the UHMWPE composites were
been compressed, the load would be firstly and mostly
supported by the BFs. So, both the strength and
4 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(00)

Figure 2. The stress–strain curve of the UHMWPE composite containing BFs of 15 wt.%.

Figure 3. The variation of compressive strength of UHMWPE composites with the weight percentage of BFs.

hardness of the UHMWPE composites increased. But,
if the content of the fillers was increased too high, the
molecular continuity of the UHMWPE matrix was
broken and the defaults like the micro-fractures were
increased. So, the strength and hardness of the
UHMWPE composites were no longer increased or
even decreased with the increase of the BF content.
The effects of the BFs on the indentation creep
It can be seen from Figure 5 that the indentation depths
of different weight percentages of BFs were all
increased drastically in the first 10 min of the test
and then the indentation depth was increased slowly.
It can be found that the indentation depth of the
UHMWPE was the largest one, reaching to 132 mm.
The indentation depth decreased as the weight percent-
age of BFs was increased, and it decreased obviously
when the weight percentage of BFs was over 10%.
As the weight percentage of BFs was 20%, the
indentation depth was 80 mm, just 60% of the
indentation depth of UHMWPE. So, the BFs could
effectively increase the UHMWPE composites’ creep
resistance.

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Cao et al. 5

Figure 4. The variation of ball indentation hardness of UHMWPE composites with the weight percentage of BFs.

Figure 5. The variation of indentation depth of UHMWPE composites with the indentation time on the different weight percentages
of BFs.

the coefficient of friction of the UHMWPE composites

The effects of the BFs on the tribological properties
Figure 6 shows the results of the friction tests of the
UHMWPE composites. It can be seen that the coeffi-
cients of friction of all the UHMWPE composites were
low at the beginning of the tests and increased drasti-
cally with the increase of the sliding time. The coeffi-
cients of friction of the UHMWPE composites with
different weight percentages of the BFs leveled off to
similar values ranging from 0.27 to 0.28 and overlapped
in the second half of the whole time of friction. In addi-
tion, with the increase of the weight percentage of BFs,
decreased in a lower range, not obviously. So, the filling
of BFs retained the UHMWPE’s advantage of low
coefficient of friction.
Figure 7 shows the wear losses of the UHMWPE
composites with the different weight percentages of
BFs. It can be seen that the wear loss of the
UHMWPE composites decreased dramatically with
the increase of the weight percentage of BFs. The
wear loss of the UHMWPE was the largest one, reach-
ing 15.39 mg. When the weight percentage of BFs was
increased to 5%, the wear loss of the UHMWPE

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6 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(00)

Figure 6. The variation of coefficient of friction with the time on the different weight percentages of BFs.

Figure 7. The variation of wear loss with the weight percentage of BFs.

composite sharply decreased to 1.48 mg, just
approximately one-tenth of the wear loss of
UHMWPE. As the weight percentage of BFs reached
20%, the wear loss of the UHMWPE composite was
0.17 mg, just approximately one-ninetieth of the wear
loss of UHMWPE. It can be found that the BFs could
sharply decrease the wear loss of the UHMWPE so as
to effectively increase the UHMWPE composites’ wear
resistance.
Scanning electron microscopic image of the worn
surfaces and mechanisms of wear
Figure 8 shows the scanning electron microscope
(SEM) photographs of the worn surfaces of the
UHMWPE composites with different contents of BFs.
As is shown in Figure 8(a), for the UHMWPE, seri-
ous wear could be seen on the worn surface. The sur-
face showed signs of delamination, including material

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Cao et al.
(a) (b)
(d)
Figure 8. SEM photographs of the worn surfaces of the UHMWPE and its composites: (a) UHMWPE, (b) UHMWPE + 5 wt.% BF,
(c) UHMWPE + 10 wt.% BF, (d) UHMWPE + 15 wt.% BF, and (e) UHMWPE + 20 wt.% BF.
folding and separations. There were large-stripped and
layered spallings and some ribbon-like tears and pieces
of debris almost on the verge of detachment. They were
the typical debris generated by adhesive wear. So, the
adhesive wear mechanism played a main part in the
wear of the UHMWPE. Then, in the following sliding,
on one hand, the large pieces of debris were extruded
and broken into little pieces or block debris. On the
other hand, the non-spalling areas were extruded by
the spalling debris. So, there were debris in the non-
spalling areas that flaked off from the matrix when
the stress reached to the fatigue limit. It can be seen
from Figure 8(b) that the stripped and layered spallings
were reduced obviously when the weight percentage of
BFs was 5%. That was because the adhesive force
which the UHMWPE matrix was subjected reduced
and there was a corresponding reduction of the adhe-
sive weak point. So, the wear mechanism of the
UHMWPE was changed from adhesive wear to fatigue
wear and the change reduced the wear of the
UHMWPE composites. In addition, in Figure 8(b),
there were little spherical or spheroidal debris, which
could also play a role in reducing the wear. There were
almost no stripped and layered spallings of the
UHMWPE matrix, as shown in Figure 8(c) and (d).
That was to say, the adhesive wear was reduced obvi-
ously. But the spherical and pole-like debris increased
on the worn surface. That was because the micro-debris
of BFs increased with the increase of the content of
BFs. The spherical and pole-like debris could roll on
the worn surface. So, it caused the friction form to
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7
(c)
(e)
change from the sliding friction to the coexistence of
sliding friction and rolling friction. Thereby, the wear
reduced. Overall, because of the above reasons,
the coefficient of friction of the UHMWPE compos-
ites decreased and the wear resistance of the
UHMWPE composites increased obviously with the
filling of BFs.
Discussion
In order to maintain the excellent impact resistance of
the UHMWPE to apply it to the occasions with larger
impact stress, the maximum weight percentage of BFs
was 20%. Experimental results showed that the
mechanical and tribological performances of the
UHMWPE composites were obviously increased
when the weight percentage of BFs was not more
than 20%. So, if the UHMWPE composites are used
in the occasions with no or small impact stress, it is
considerable to further increase the weight percentage
of BFs. Probably, more excellent tribological perfor-
mance of the UHMWPE composites will be obtained.
That will be one of our subsequent research works.
Conclusions
This article studied the UHMWPE’s filling modifica-
tion, and the filler was the BFs, a new kind of ideal
reinforcing materials. Then, the properties of the
UHMWPE composites were been tested. The following
are the conclusions:
8 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(00)
1. Although the UHMWPE composites’ toughness
decreased, the strength, hardness, and creep resis-
tance improved when the content of the BFs was
from 5 to 20 wt.%. First, the maximum compressive
strength of the UHMWPE increased by 32%. Then,
the maximum ball indentation hardness of the
UHMWPE increased by 68%. In addition, the min-
imum indentation depth of the UHMWPE compos-
ites was 60% of the indentation depth of
UHMWPE.
2. The UHMWPE composites’ friction and wear prop-
erties were much higher than that of the UHMWPE.
The results indicated that the coefficient of friction of
the UHMWPE composites decreased in a lower
range, maintaining the UHMWPE’s advantage of
low coefficient of friction. The wear loss of the
UHMWPE composites sharply decreased with
the increase of the weight percentage of BFs. As
the weight percentage of BFs reached to 20%, the
wear loss of the UHMWPE composites was just
approximately one-ninetieth of the wear loss of
UHMWPE.
3. The main reason that the addition of BFs could
improve the UHMWPE’s friction and wear proper-
ties was that the friction and wear form of the tribo-
pairs were changed. The change included two parts.
The first part was that the morphology of wear
debris was changed. With the increase of the
weight percentage of BFs, the morphology of wear
debris was changed from the stripped wear debris to
the spherical or pole-like debris which had the
function of antifriction. That caused the friction
form of the tribo-pairs changed from sliding friction
to the coexistence of sliding friction and rolling
friction. So, the coefficient of friction and the wear
loss of the UHMWPE composites decreased.
The second part was that the wear form was
changed. The main wear of the UHMWPE was
adhesive wear, while the addition of BFs obvi-
ously decreased the adhesive weak point of
the UHMWPE matrix. That caused the wear form
to change from adhesive wear to fatigue wear. So,
the wear loss of the UHMWPE composites
decreased.
Acknowledgment
The study reported in this article was supported by
National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no.
51075387).
Funding
This study was supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China [grant number 51075387].
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