Erosive wear behavior of bio-waste particulate-reinforced epoxy composites for low cost applications

Abstract

Polymer based substances such as epoxy or poly-epoxide has tremendous role in industrial applications such as surface coatings, potting, laminated circuit boards due to its versatile nature. Synthetic fibers are used in polymer composites as reinforcement to increase its mechanical and tribological properties. However, natural fibers/particulates are more preferable over synthetic fibers due to their environment friendliness, high abundance, viable and cost effective. Due to easy accessibility and manufacturing, worldwide researchers have been tempted to develop biofiber-based composite material and study their ability in tribological applications. In this research paper, the erosive behaviors of reinforced epoxy composite with different weight percentage of bio waste (orange peel) were studied. The erosive wear behavior of fabricated composites was evaluated at different impingement/impact angles (i.e., 30°, 60°, 45° and 90°) and impact velocities (48, 70 and 82 m/s) with constant feed rate at 5 gm/min. The solid particle erosion was carried out taking silica sand as erodent and the average size of erodent is 150–250 µm. The impact velocity and impact angle have a tremendous effect on erosive wear. SEM study of eroded surfaces also carried out to inspect the worn surface morphology.