Composites have been found to be the most promising and discerning material available in this century. Presently, composites reinforced with fibers of synthetic or natural materials are gaining more importance as demands for lightweight materials with high strength for specific applications are growing in the market. Fiber-reinforced polymer composite offers not only high strength to weight ratio, but also reveals exceptional properties such as high durability; stiffness; damping property; flexural strength; and resistance to corrosion, wear, impact, and fire. These wide ranges of diverse features have led composite materials to find applications in mechanical, construction, aerospace, automobile, biomedical, marine, and many other manufacturing industries. Performance of composite materials predominantly depends on their constituent elements and manufacturing techniques, therefore, functional properties of various fibers available worldwide, their classifications, and the manufacturing techniques used to fabricate the composite materials need to be studied in order to figure out the optimized characteristic of the material for the desired application. An overview of a diverse range of fibers, their properties, functionality, classification, and various fiber composite manufacturing techniques is presented to discover the optimized fiber-reinforced composite material for significant applications. Their exceptional performance in the numerous fields of applications have made fiber-reinforced composite materials a promising alternative over solitary metals or alloys.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

A B S T R A C TIn the present investigation, aluminum matrix nanocomposites reinforced by graphene nanoplatelets were synthesized by powder metallurgy method. The microstructure of the Al-Graphene nanoplatelets sample was investigated by TEM. The hardness measurements of these samples were investigated using a Rockwell hardness tester. To investigate the tribological behavior of aluminum matrix composites reinforced by graphene nanoplatelets and pure aluminum, pin-on-disk experiments were conducted on the prepared samples. In the experiments, the influence of reinforcement, volume fraction, normal load, and sliding velocity on the tribological performance was investigated. Results showed that the wear rate of Al1wt.% GNP is increased with increasing normal loads. However, the coefficient of friction (COF) of the Al-1wt.% GNP decreased with increasing normal loads. Formation of graphene film on the worn surface of Al-1wt.% GNP sample and morphology of the worn surfaces of aluminum and composite samples were analyzed by Optical Microscope (OM) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). It was found that the graphene nanoplatelets reinforced nano-composites showed superior tribological properties and demonstrated the ability of the self-lubricating nature of the composite during tribological conditions.

Lightweight high-strength metal matrix nano-composites (MMNCs) can be used in a wide variety of applications, e.g., aerospace, automotive, and biomedical engineering, owing to their sustainability, increased specific strength/stiffness, enhanced elevated temperature strength, improved wear, or corrosion resistance. A metallic matrix, commonly comprising of light aluminum or magnesium alloys, can be significantly strengthened even by very low weight fractions (~1 wt%) of well-dispersed nanoparticles. This review discusses the recent advancements in the fabrication of metal matrix nanocomposites starting with manufacturing routes and different nanoparticles, intricacies of the underlying physics, and the mechanisms of particle dispersion in a particle-metal composite system. Thereafter, the microstructural influences of the nanoparticles on the composite system are outlined and the theory of the strengthening mechanisms is also explained. Finally, microstructural, mechanical, and tribological properties of the selected MMNCs are discussed as well.

As the industrial community moves towards green manufacturing processes, there is an increased demand for multi-functional, environmentally friendly lubricants with enhanced tribological performance. In the present investigation, green (environmentally benign) lubricant combinations were prepared by homogeneously mixing nano-(20 nm), submicrometre-(600 nm average size) and micrometre-scale (4 mm average size) boric acid powder additives with canola oil in a vortex generator. As a basis for comparison, lubricants of base canola oil and canola oil mixed with MoS 2 powder (ranging from 0.5 to 10 mm) were also prepared. Friction and wear experiments were carried out on the prepared lubricants using a pin-on-disc apparatus under ambient conditions. Based on the experiments, the nanoscale (20 nm) particle boric acid additive lubricants significantly outperformed all of the other lubricants with respect to frictional and wear performance. In fact, the nanoscale boric acid powder-based lubricants exhibited a wear rate more than an order of magnitude lower than the MoS 2 and larger sized boric acid additive-based lubricants. It was also discovered that the oil mixed with a combination of sub-micrometre-and micrometre-scale boric acid powder additives exhibited better friction and wear performance than the canola oil mixed with sub-micrometre-or micrometre-scale boric acid additives alone.