Three-body abrasive wear behavior of rice straw fibers reinforced PLA composites

Abstract

The current study focused on improving the abrasion resistance of rice straw fiber reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) composites. The effect of applied load and rice straw fiber loading on three-body abrasive wear behavior of PLA composites have been investigated. Rice straw fibers were treated with 2 wt% NaOH solution. Both the untreated and treated were produced by injection molding technique. Wear testing was performed on a dry sand/rubber wheel abrasion tester. According to the experimental results, fiber loading and applied load have a significant influence on composite wear loss. The results reveal that the abrasive wear loss of the composites decreases as fiber loading rises, whereas wear loss increases as applied normal load increases. SEM images were used to examine at the worn surfaces of the abraded samples to learn more about how the material was taken away. The treated fiber-reinforced PLA composites showed improvement in wear resistance than the untreated fiber reinforced PLA composites because the NaOH treatment of the fibers increased the fiber–matrix adhesion,