Carbon fabric reinforced epoxy and carbon fabric reinforced epoxy containing different weight fraction of silane-treated fly ash cenospheres filled composites were cast, sectioned, and subjected to three-body abrasive wear tests for evaluating the abrasive wear behavior. Mechanical characterization was done and a comparison was made between the different samples. Abrasive wear tests were performed on a rubber wheel abrasion tester under different loads, abrading distances using quartz and silica sand as abrasives. The results showed that both unfilled carbon fabric reinforced epoxy and fly ash cenospheres filled carbon fabric reinforced epoxy composites exhibit differing magnitudes of wear volume loss, it being highest for unfilled carbon fabric reinforced epoxy composite. The data trends point to the fact that the wear volume and specific wear rate decreases with increasing fly ash cenospheres loading in carbon fabric reinforced epoxy composites. It was found that silane-treated fly ash cenospheres could effectively reduce the wear rate especially under silica sand as abrasives. To explain these differences, the worn surfaces were examined using scanning electron microscope and the features thus observed were correlated with the selected mechanical properties.

Polymers and their composites are emerging as viable alternative products to metal-based and alloy based ones in many common and advanced engineering applications. The feature that makes polymer composites so promising in industrial applications is the possibility of tailoring their properties with special fillers. The comparative performance of carbon-epoxy composite with influence of Cenosphere filler were experimentally investigated under varying applied load, sliding distance and sliding velocity by using a pin-on-disc apparatus. For increased applied load situation, higher weight loss was recorded. Addition of Cenosphere in carbon -epoxy composite exhibits lower weight loss, whose value drops as the percentage of Cenosphere increases in the composite. A plan of experiments, based on the techniques of Taguchi, was performed to acquire data in a controlled way. An orthogonal array and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were employed to investigate the influence of process parameters on the wear of these composites. The results showed that the inclusion of Cenosphere as filler materials in carbon epoxy composites will increase the wear resistance of the composite greatly. SEM analysis has been made to identify the phenomenon of wear as a function of applied load, sliding distance and sliding velocity.

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