In present investigation, the three-body abrasive wear behavior of short jute fiber reinforced epoxy composites was studied. The effect of various parameters such as fiber loading, sliding velocity, normal load, and abrasive size on the abrasive wear rate of composite has been analyzed. Abrasive wear study has been carried out using a dry sand/rubber wheel abrasion tester. The abrasive wear and friction characteristics of these composites are analyzed successfully using Taguchi orthogonal array and analysis of variance. The experimental study reveals that sliding velocity, fiber loading, and abrasive size have greater influence on the specific wear rate of the composites. The results show that the specific wear rate of the composites decreases with the increase in sliding velocity whereas, with the increase in normal load the specific wear rate increases. The study also revealed that the coefficient of friction of the composites increases up to a certain value than decreases with the increase in normal load as well as sliding velocity. The worn surfaces of the abraded specimens were examined using SEM to understand the mechanism involved in material removal.
The need of eco-friendly, sustainable, and biodegradable material for structural and nonstructural application increases day by day. Jute fiber is one of the largely produced natural fibers and has properties comparable to synthetic fibers. Currently, abrasive wear of the agricultural and engineering machine components is one of the major industrial problems. An attempt has been made in this paper to study the abrasive wear behavior of bidirectional jute fiber-epoxy composites. Composites of five different compositions with fiber loading ranging from 0 to 48 wt.% were prepared using hand lay-up technique. Observations has been made under steady state condition to understand the effect of sliding velocity and normal load on the specific wear rate and coefficient of friction of the composites. It further outlines a methodology based on Taguchi's experimental design approach to make a parametric analysis of wear behavior. It has been found that the composites with 36 wt.% fiber loading exhibits minimum specific wear rate at different sliding velocity and normal load. The parametric combination of factors, such as sliding velocity of 144 cm/s, fiber loading of 48 wt.%, normal load of 40 N, sliding distance of 70 m, and abrasive size of 200 mm shows an optimum condition for minimum specific wear rate, whereas sliding velocity of 144 cm/s, fiber loading of 12 wt.%, normal load of 10 N, sliding distance of 80 m, and abrasive size of 300 mm show an optimum condition for minimum coefficient of friction. Finally, the worn surfaces were examined using a scanning electron microscope.
Now-a-days, natural fiber based composites are emerging as a supplement to the synthetic fiber composites. The aim of the present work is to investigate the three-body abrasive wear behavior of needle-punch nonwoven jute fiber reinforced epoxy (NJFE) composites in an abrasive environment. Three-body abrasion studies have been done on composites using rubber wheel abrasion tester. The design of experiments approach using Taguchi methodology is employed for the parametric analysis of abrasive wear process. The effect of the factors such as sliding velocity, fiber loading, applied load, sliding distance and abrasive size on the specific wear rate and coefficient of friction of composite has been studied. Experimental results reveal the improvement of abrasive wear behavior of the composites with the addition of fiber as compared to neat epoxy. At steady state condition, it has been observed that composites with 36 wt% fiber loading shows minimum specific wear rate. From the statistical analysis it has been concluded that the factor combination with sliding velocity of 120 cm/s, fiber loading of 36 wt%, normal load of 10 N, sliding distance of 50 m and abrasive size of 400 μm gives minimum specific wear rate whereas sliding velocity of 144 cm/s, fiber loading of 36 wt%, normal load of 10 N, sliding distance of 70 m and abrasive size of 300 μm gives minimum coefficient of friction. Finally, the worn surfaces are examined by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and possible abrasion wear mechanisms are discussed.
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