Erosive wear studies of epoxy-based composites at normal incidence

Erosive wear resistance has been evaluated for neat epoxy, unidirectional glass and carbon fibre reinforced epoxy composites and bi-directional E-glass fabric reinforced epoxy composite at normal incidence. Bi-directional glass fibre reinforced epoxy composite showed better erosive wear resistance than unidirectional fibre reinforced composites. This is due to the arrangement of glass fibres in bi-direction and is more helpful in absorbing considerable amount of impact energy during the fracture process than unidirectional composites. Erosion behaviour of these composites has been ascertained by correlating steady-state erosion with impingement angle, impact velocity and by plotting erosion efficiency (eta) versus hardness map. It is broadly confirmed that semi-ductile erosion behaviour is operative in epoxy and its composites. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies have been conducted to understand the wear mechanisms involved during the material removal process. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.