Adhesive and abrasive wear behavior of Kenaf long fiber reinforced epoxy composites

Abstract

Polymers are widely used as replacement of convention metal components for various applications of engineering. In order to improve mechanical properties of polymers, fiber is introduced as reinforcing phase. In this work epoxy was used as polymer whereas Kenaf long fiber was used as reinforcement. This paper presents wear properties of alkali treated long Kenaf bast fiber reinforced epoxy composites. The weight percentage of reinforcement was increased from 10 to 40%. Hand layup technique was used to fabricate the composite plate. The results showed that wear strength is increased with increase in reinforcement. Both adhesive wear and abrasive wear behavior of Kenaf long fibers reinforced epoxy polymer composites were discussed. The adhesive wear experiment was carried out using pin on disc machine at different normal load and sliding velocities whereas abrasive wear experiment was conducted at different abrasive size particles using Olsen wearometer. Adhesive wear was conducted perpendicular to the direction of fibers and abrasive wear was conducted along the direction of fibers. From the experimental results, the 30% wt. fiber loading has best wear resistance both in adhesive and abrasive wear compared to rest of the composites.