Title: Processing, characterisation and erosion wear analysis of SiC filled glass-epoxy-composites

Authors: Amar Patnaik, Sandhyarani Biswas, Alok Satapathy, Ritesh Kaundal

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur – 177005, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela – 769008, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela – 769008, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur – 177005, India

Abstract: Fibre reinforced composite materials have been used in main parts of structures; an accurate evaluation of their erosion behaviour becomes very important. According to previous researchers, erosion wear holds about 8% of there regular wear in industrial production. In this study, short glass fibre (SGF) reinforced epoxy-based isotropic polymer composites are fabricated with five different fibre weight-fractions. This paper describes the processing and characterisation of a class of hybrid composites prepared by filling of SiC particulates in short glass fibre reinforced epoxy resin and compared with the published research report on bidirectional glass fibre (BGF) reinforced epoxy composites. For this purpose, a novel technique like Taguchi experimental design is employed. It is observed that the erodent temperature, filler content, impact velocity, impingement angle are the most significant factors effecting the erosion rate. The peak erosion rate is found to be occurring at an impingement angle of 75° for both the set of composites and for unfilled composites the impingement angle lies in the range of 60°. The morphology of eroded surfaces is examined by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and possible erosion mechanisms are discussed.

Keywords: epoxy resin; e-glass fibre; silicon carbide; Taguchi methods; erosion wear; wear analysis; glass epoxy composites; glass fibre reinforced composites; polymer composites; experimental design; temperature; filler content; impact velocity; impingement angle.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCMSSE.2011.039571

International Journal of Computational Materials Science and Surface Engineering, 2011 Vol.4 No.2, pp.168 - 184

Published online: 11 Jan 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article