Design of reinforced composite material to overcome wear occurrence in transportation pipes

Abstract

The wear of carbon steel piping systems has been one of the major problems for various industries that involve the high-speed transportation of their raw materials and/or products. Transportation of cement in construction materials manufacturing factories through carbon steel pipes was studied to suggest a resistible material of unsaturated polyester reinforced with glass fiber and the aluminum honeycomb to be used instead of these pipes. A laboratory-scale apparatus was built to examine the wearing in pipes for the carbon steel and composites specimens. The electrical and mechanical prosperities of the composites were studied by using the ASTM standards to find the best conditions for the newly constructed pipes. It was found that, by increasing the concentration of aluminum powder up to 50 wt% of the composite mixture, the electrical conductivity was increased to be within the range of semi-conductance but the mechanical properties decreased. The best concentration of aluminum powder was found to be 30 wt% of the composite mixture, which represents the most suitable electrical and mechanical properties. Also, it was found that the samples of aluminum honeycomb were gained very good electrical conductivity with special mechanical properties that are suitable for many practical applications.