Steady state analysis on sliding wear behavior of waste marble dust filled kenaf‐polyester composites

Abstract

In view of the rising demand of natural fiber reinforced polymers in engineering applications, the current research is taken on to study the effects of particulate filling in polyester‐kenaf fiber composite in terms of its sliding wear performance. A set of polyester‐based hybrid composites are fabricated with fixed kenaf fiber content and varied quantities of waste marble dust (0 wt. %, 16 wt. % and 32 wt. %). These composites are subjected to dry‐sliding wear trials as per ASTM G‐99 05 under different test conditions and the specific wear rate are estimated. The test results are analyzed to obtain the parametric appraisal of the wear process using response surface method. The analysis reveals that the filler content followed by sliding velocity, normal load and sliding distance has the detrimental impact on the specific wear rate of such hybrid composites. A morphological study is performed using a scanning electron microscope to identify prominent wear mechanisms and it is found that the wear loss is primarily due to the formation of wear tracks, cracks, craters, plastic deformation, wear debris and the removal of matrix layer etc. during the sliding process.