Mechanical and Dry Sliding Wear Behavior of Particulate Fillers CaCO<SUB>3</SUB> and CaSO<SUB>4</SUB> Filled Vinyl ester Composites

Abstract

The imp roved performance of poly mers and their co mposites in industries and many other applications by the addition of part iculate fillers has shown great advantages and so has lately been the subject of considerable interest. In this paper, mechanical and tribological behavior of particu late fillers CaCO3 and CaSO4 filled v inyl ester co mposites have been presented. Wear tests were carried out in dry sliding conditions on a pin-on-disc friction and wear test rig. (DUCOM) at roo m temperature under slid ing velocity (1.57, 2.62 and 3.67 m/sec.), normal load (20, 40 and 60 N), filler content (0, 10 and 20 wt.%) and sliding d istance (1000, 3000 and 5000 m). The plans of experiments is based on the Taguchi technique, was performed to acquire data in a controlled way. An orthogonal array and analysis of variance (A NOVA ) were applied to investigate the influence of process parameters on the coefficient of friction and sliding wear behaviour of these composites. The coefficient of frict ion and specific wear rate were significantly influenced with increase in both the filler content. The results show that for pure vinyl ester the coefficient of frict ion and specific wear rate increases with the increase of normal load, sliding velocity and sliding d istance. The coefficient of friction and specific wear rate for CaCO3 filler decreases with the increase of filler content. But, for filler CaSO4 the coefficient of frict ion and specific wear rate decreases at 10 wt.% and then increases at 20 wt.%. It is believed that a thin film formed on stainless steel counterface was seems to be effective in improving the tribolog ical characteristics. The worn surfaces examined through SEM to elucidate the mechanis m of friction and wear behaviour.