Synergy of rice-husk filler on physico-mechanical and tribological properties of hybrid Bauhinia-vahlii/sisal fiber reinforced epoxy composites

Abstract

In this research, the effect of rice husk fillers were investigated on physical, mechanical and sliding wear properties of on hybrid Bauhinia-vahlii-weight (BVW) and Bauhinia-vahlii-weight/sisal (BVWS) fibers reinforced hybrid composites. The rice husk content was hybridized by loading variation of 0, 2, 4 and 6wt% with 6wt% BVW and combined 6wt% BVW-Sisal fiber reinforced epoxy composites. The physical and mechanical properties like void fraction, water absorption, tensile strength, flexural strength, hardness, and impact energy in this research were found to be greatly influenced by rice-husk content. Moreover, the impact energy was found to be slightly decreased, owing to possible decrease in the deformability of the resin constituent. Rice husk filled BVWS composites exhibited improved tensile strength (34.42%), flexural strength (33%), and hardness (7.1%) as compared to BVW composites at all filler loading. The influence of selected control factors: sliding velocity, rice husk contents, normal load and sliding distance on specific wear rate of composites was investigated by Taguchi experimental design. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to analyze the influence of each selected control factor on specific wear rate. The evaluated results demonstrate that rice husk content and sliding velocity were found to emerge the most noteworthy control factors among the others. Furthermore, the wear scars were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy to establish the governing wear mechanisms. This research established that the addition of rice husk fillers with optimum variation reflects the improvement in mechanical and wear performance of natural fiber based epoxy composites.