Experimental investigation of fiber orientation effect on mechanical and erosive wear performance of TiO2 filled woven jute fiber based epoxy composites

Abstract

Depleting finite resources and environmental conditions caused by derived synthetic fiber based polymer composites urged researchers to develop a substitute eco-friendly and bio degradable polymer composites in an economical manner by replacing synthetic fiber with natural fibers derived from plant,animals and industrial by products, having inherent properties like biodegradability, availability, renewability, low density, better specific mechanical properties, lower weight to strength ratio, unique acoustic characteristics however some demerits like hydrophobic in nature, poor bonding between fiber and matrix and the corresponding high moisture absorption. Out of all natural fibers, jute has been extensively considered for many engineering applications due to its availability. Most of the composites are exposed to dusty environment which leads to solid particle erosion, an investigation of their erosion attributes are of fundamental significance. Erosion wear test conducted by blasting a stream of solid particles against the target causes wear on surface. For a composite, its mechanical behaviour and many factors that influence the solid particle erosion. Attempts have been made to find the mechanical properties and erosion wear behavior of jute fiber reinforced composites at different orientation of fiber in addition of TiO 2 . The composites samples with different fiber orientation of woven jute fiber at 2 wt% of filler material were fabricated. Enhancement of tensile and flexural properties of jute fiber/epoxy composite with TiO 2 filler at 90° orientation of fiber erosive wear resistance improved on addition of TiO 2 filler material but the orientation of fiber doesn’t showed any considerable significance on erosive wear rate.