ABSTRACTThe aim of the present work is to investigate the friction of epoxy flooring materials filled by thermoplastic polymers and sliding against rubber. Experiments were carried out at dry and water wetted sliding conditions. It was found that, friction coefficient caused by the dry sliding of rubber on epoxy filled by polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) showed significant increase up to maximum then decreased with increasing PP and PS contents. The highest friction coefficient was displayed at 40 wt. % PP and 20 wt. % PS. Friction coefficient increased as the load increased. Epoxy composites filled by polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) showed an increasing trend in friction coefficient with increasing PTFE and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) contents up to 10 wt. %. The friction increase was followed by slight decrease as PTFE and PVC increased. In the presence of water on the sliding surfaces, friction coefficient showed the same trend observed in dry sliding. As the PP content increased friction coefficient increased up to maximum then decreased. The friction values displayed showed that the sliding condition fulfilled the slip-resistant standard for safe walking when handling loads. Besides, slight increase of the values of friction coefficient was observed for epoxy composites filled by PS, while significant friction increase was observed for PVC, where the values were much higher than that displayed by dry sliding. Friction increase may be caused by the high electric charge generated on the sliding surfaces, where the normal force increased by the action of the electric force. Epoxy composites filled by PTFE sliding against rubber showed significant friction decrease with increasing PTFE content. Based on the frictional observations composites filled by PVC can be recommended as good flooring materials.
Youssef et al. (Tue,) studied this question.