An Assessment of Erosion Wear Response of SiC Filled Epoxy Composites Reinforced with Glass and Bamboo Fibers

The present work describes the processing and studies the erosion wear characteristics of bamboo fiber reinforced epoxy composites filled with SiC particulate. The mechanical properties of these composites are evaluated and are then compared with those of a similar set of SiC filled glass-epoxy composites. The solid particle erosion characteristics of the bamboo-epoxy composites have also been studied and the experimental results are compared with the reported erosion test results on glass-epoxy composites under similar test conditions by Biswas and Satapathy (2009). The influence of particulate filler on the erosion wear response of composites has been critically analyzed using Taguchi experimental design. This systematic experimentation has led to determination of significant process parameters and material variables that predominantly influence the wear rate of the particulate filled glass-epoxy and bamboo-epoxy composites. The comparative study indicates that although the bamboo based composites exhibit relatively inferior mechanical properties, their erosion wear performance is better than that of the glass-epoxy composites.