No abstract

Glass/epoxy (G-E) products are widely used in numerous industries nowadays. This is due to favorable characteristics of these products including low cost, ease of manufacturing, good mechanical properties, and lightweight. The mechanical properties of G-E composites can be enhanced through mixing with natural reinforcement materials. In this work, we investigate the use of date seeds (DSs) as a reinforcement material for G-E composites. A DS filler has been added to G-E hybrid composites as a powder by applying a semiautomatic technique. Glass fibers reinforced with angle-ply ([±45]4) were considered as commonly used G-E composites. G-E reinforced DS composites were analyzed using various mechanical characteristics such as mica-hardness, tensile strength, and impact strength. Effects of the DS filler on the wear volume loss (VL) were investigated at different parameter settings. This loss was analyzed using the traditional Taguchi method and the nontraditional flower pollination algorithm to obtain optimal parameters. Surface inspection using a scanning electron microscope and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) was conducted. The results revealed that the addition of a 10% DS reinforcement to G-E composites enhanced the wear resistance and increased toughness and hardness. Finally, G-E-DS composite optimization was carried out by minimizing the wear VL. This resulted in an optimum DS reinforcement of 10% at a normal load of 10 N, an abrasive size of 1200 mesh, and an abrading distance of 420 m. Deviations from this reinforcement ratio degrade the mechanical properties of the G-E-DS composite. Moreover, the significant factors are the abrasive size, reinforcement material wt%, normal load, and abrading distance. The contributions of these factors are 30.6%, 15.5%, 11.8%, and 10%, respectively. FTIR results indicate that a chemical interaction has occurred between G-E and the organic DS. These experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical ones.

Polymer composites have been widely exploited in numerous industries. Micro-particle fillers are typically added as reinforcement materials to improve the characteristics of these composites. In this work, organic nanoparticles of date seeds were added as a filler for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to produce enhanced polymer nanocomposites. A date-seed nanofiller (DSN) was prepared and examined with x-ray diffraction measurements, and then added to PET by hot compression. The characteristics of the PET-DSN composite were experimentally investigated through tests of mass loss, compressive strength, and Vickers micro-hardness. The PET-DSN microstructure was inspected using a scanning electron microscope and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The results show chemical stability of the PET-DSN composite. Moreover, key mechanical properties of the composite, namely hardness, compressive strength and wear resistance, were improved and optimized with a DSN reinforcement of 0.75 wt%.

Purpose The fiber orientation is considered one of the important parameters that have an effect on the characteristics of composites. This paper aims to investigate the effect of fiber orientation on the abrasive wear of the glass-epoxy (G-E) composites with different silicon carbide (SiC) filler weights (Wt.%). Design/methodology/approach The wear rate of glass fiber reinforced with angle-ply 0º, ±45º and 90º is discussed. The G-E composites with different weights of SiC filler at angle ±45º are considered. Hand lay-up technique was adopted for specimen preparation. The influence of effective parameters such as filler Wt. %, normal load, abrasive size and abrading distance on the wear rate was presented and discussed. Findings Experimental tests including pin on disk, micro-hardness and scanning electron microscope were carried out to investigate the composite characteristics. Originality/value The experimental results showed that the resistance wear was superior in case of ±45º fiber orientations. A validation of the experimental results using Taguchi approach to verify the optimal wear rate parameters was presented.

No abstract