Optimization and analysis of dry sliding wear process parameters on cellulose reinforced ABS polymer composite material

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to the optimization using three factors and three-level parameters (sliding speed [rpm], sliding distance [m/s] and load [N]) of design matrix were adapted to Box–Behnken design using design expert v8.0 software. Based on the parameters, to develop the linear regression equation and to find the significant considerable wear process parameters based on output responses like wear loss (WL) and coefficient of friction (COF) value of polymer matrix composites (PMC) specimen of Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS)/cellulose composite (80 wt% of ABS and 20 wt% of cellulose). Design/methodology/approach The fabrication of the ABS/cellulose composite sample was carried out by the simple hands-on stir process method. As per the American Society for Testing and Materials G99 standard, the sample was made by the molding process. The wear analysis was made by multi tribotester TR25 machine and validated the developed model by using statistical software design expert v.8.0 and numerical tools like analysis of variance. The surface morphology [field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) analysis] of the sample was also observed using the Quanta FEG-250 FESEM instrument. Findings The parameters like sliding speed, sliding distance and load are independently affected the COF value and WL of the 80% of ABS matrix and 20% cellulose reinforced composite material. The regression equations were generated by the coefficient of friction value and WL, which predicted the minimum WL of 80% of ABS matrix and 20% of cellulose reinforced composite material. The worn surface analysis result exposes the worn path and equal distribution of reinforcement and matrix on the surface of composite material. Originality/value The literature survey revealed a small number of studies available regarding wear analysis of ABS matrix and cellulose reinforced composite materials. In the present work, to fabricate and evaluate the wear performance of PMC (80% of ABS and 20% of cellulose) depends on the WL and COF value. The maximum and minimum COF value (µ) of 80% of ABS and 20% of cellulose composite material is 4.71 and 0.28 with the optimized wear process parameter by 1,000 mm of sliding distance, 0.25 (m/s) of sliding speed and 9 N of load.