Synchronously improved thermal conductivity and tribological performance of self-lubricating fabric liner composites via integrated design method with copper yarn

Abstract The introduction of functional fillers is very important for enhancing the thermal conductivity and tribological performance of self-lubricating fabric liner composites. In present work, copper yarn was woven into hybrid Nomex/PTFE fabric via an integrated design method to fabricate self-lubricating fabric liner composites. Characterizations using thermal conductivity analyzer and tensile testing machine demonstrated that the copper fiber-reinforced self-lubricating fabric liner composites possessed a better thermal conductivity and yarn pull-out performance. The thermal conductivity and yarn pull-out force of copper yarn-reinforced self-lubricating fabric liner were 0.1814 W/m·K and 2.876 N, which increased by 78.9% and 24.8% compared with that of no-copper yarn-reinforced self-lubricating fabric liner composites, respectively. The results of wear tests indicated that the copper yarn-reinforced self-lubricating liner fabric composites exhibited preferred anti-wear properties.