Two-body abrasive wear behavior of woven basalt fabric reinforced epoxy and polyester composites

The current research work focused on the abrasive wear behavior of the basalt fabric as reinforcement in epoxy and polyester composites. Traditional hand-layup technique is used to manufacture the composites. The mechanical characteristics of the basalt fiber reinforced composites have been reported. The two body abrasive wear behavior of the fabricated composites was conducted by using pin/ball on disc tester TR-20 disc equipment. Test were conducted at two different load of 5 N and 10 N, for various sliding distances of 25 m to 100 m at equal intervals with 400 grade grit of particle size 35 mu m. Wear resistance of the composites were determined by calculated the specific wear rate of the composites. Basalt fiber as reinforcement in epoxy composites showed better wear resistance than basalt fiber as reinforcement in polyester composites. Wear mechanism of worn samples is conducted by using the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).