Wear properties of nanoclay modified basalt fibre composites under dry adhesive sliding, two-body abrasive, and slurry pot erosive

This paper reports the effect of 1.0 wt%, 3.0 wt% and 5.0 wt% nanoclay loadings on specific wear rate properties of basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) composites. The specific wear rate properties of the BFRP composites were analyzed at three different wear conditions, i.e., dry adhesive sliding, two-body abrasion, and slurry pot erosion in which the composites slide against smooth steel, rough silicon carbide, and medium-coarse sand mixture, respectively. The operating parameters for the wear tests were set at 30 N load, 300 rpm speed, and 10 km distance. The results demonstrated that the addition of nanoclay effectively enhanced the adhesive and erosive wear properties of BFRP composites. In adhesive wear properties, BFRP containing up to 5.0 wt% (EP/BF/5NC) marked 31.73% improvement when compared to the pure system, whereas, under erosive wear condition, the wear rate reduced by up to 51.12% when 1.0 wt% of nanoclay was added to EP/BF. As the nanoclay content increases, the wear rate exhibited improvement as indicated by reduction of erosive wear resistance. In contrast, nanoclay incorporation deteriorated the abrasive wear properties of BFRP. The abrasive wear rates reduced as nanoclay content increased, for example, the incorporation of nanoclay up to 5.0 wt% deteriorated about 101.94% when compared to pure EP/BF. The morphology of worn surfaces was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to study the wear behavior of the nano clay modified BFRP composites. It concluded that nanoclay incorporation exhibited significant influence on wear properties of the polymer composites depending on the wear environment condition.

Automated summary

This study investigated the effect of different weight percentages of nanoclay on the wear properties of basalt fiber reinforced polymer composites. The results showed that the addition of nanoclay effectively improved the adhesive and erosive wear properties of the composites, while deteriorating the abrasive wear properties. The wear rate exhibited improvement with increasing nanoclay content, but was dependent on the wear environment conditions.