Experimental Investigation of Slurry Erosion Wear Analysis of Epoxy Resin Reinforced with Aramid Woven Fabric with Taguchi Experimental Design

Abstract

Abstract: Fibre reinforced polymer composites as hybrid composites are commonly used for certain applications in which erosion wear and fracture are serious issues. These composites have engineering/structural applications in which they are subjected to sand slurries and dusty environment. Composites with different fibre loading are used to evaluate steady state erosion behavior for different operating conditions on slurry jet erosion testing machine. In this chapter Slurry jet erosion test rig is used for experimental investigation of steady state erosion rate of aramid composite samples as per ASTM standards. Steady state erosion test is conducted by defining certain control factors and fixed parameters. Test is conducted in two cases. In first case by varying impact angle and keeping impact velocity and discharge rate constant and in second case by varying impact velocity and keeping impact angle and discharge rate constant. Steady state erosion rate is calculated for both the cases. The Taguchi experimental design (orthogonal array) is used to optimize the design parameters and used to analyse the effect of control factors on output parameters, which reduces overall testing time and cost. To understand the effect of control factors and their iterations ANOVA (analysis of variance) is used. Results of steady state erosion rate and Taguchi experimental design are analysed to selection best suitable material for turbine blade application based on minimum erosion rate