Three-Body Abrasive Wear Behavior of Needle-Punch Nonwoven Jute Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites

Abstract

Now-a-days, natural fiber based composites are emerging as a supplement to the synthetic fiber composites. The aim of the present work is to investigate the three-body abrasive wear behavior of needle-punch nonwoven jute fiber reinforced epoxy (NJFE) composites in an abrasive environment. Three-body abrasion studies have been done on composites using rubber wheel abrasion tester. The design of experiments approach using Taguchi methodology is employed for the parametric analysis of abrasive wear process. The effect of the factors such as sliding velocity, fiber loading, applied load, sliding distance and abrasive size on the specific wear rate and coefficient of friction of composite has been studied. Experimental results reveal the improvement of abrasive wear behavior of the composites with the addition of fiber as compared to neat epoxy. At steady state condition, it has been observed that composites with 36 wt% fiber loading shows minimum specific wear rate. From the statistical analysis it has been concluded that the factor combination with sliding velocity of 120 cm/s, fiber loading of 36 wt%, normal load of 10 N, sliding distance of 50 m and abrasive size of 400 μm gives minimum specific wear rate whereas sliding velocity of 144 cm/s, fiber loading of 36 wt%, normal load of 10 N, sliding distance of 70 m and abrasive size of 300 μm gives minimum coefficient of friction. Finally, the worn surfaces are examined by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and possible abrasion wear mechanisms are discussed.