Physical, mechanical and dry sliding wear properties of non-woven viscose fabric epoxy-based polymer composites: An optimization study

Polymer-based composites have been widely used in the enhanced tribological technologies of various automobile, aerospace industry, sports, etc. The epoxy-based polymer composites reinforced with glass fiber have significantly improved the wear inhibitors and ultimate strength along with ultra-low density than other available materials. This current research aims to fabricate a variation of such non-woven viscose-based polymer composites for various weight fractions (100-400 GSM) with a constant fiber loading of 30 wt% and subsequently analyze its physical, mechanical, and tribological properties under various operating parameters. The density of the fabricated composite exhibits an increase of magnitude with an increase in weight fraction. The composites consist of 400 GSM fabric showing a higher tensile, impact, flexural strength, hardness, and inter lamina shear strength (ILSS). A pin-on-disc wear set-up held dry sliding wear tests of various nonwoven viscose fabric-based composites under various operating parameters like sliding velocity, sliding distance, area density, and normal load. A Taguchi-based L-16 orthogonal array design was utilized to estimate the optimal behavior for maximum wear resistance for operating conditions. The result reveals that the normal load over the composite contributes the highest towards wear on a composite compared to area density, sliding velocity, and distance. The wear phenomena have been verified with SEM micrographs to characterize various wear phenomena like fiber rapture, ploughing, micro-cracks, and wear lines.

Automated summary

Polymer-based composites reinforced with glass fiber have been studied for their physical, mechanical, and tribological properties, showing improved strength and wear resistance.