Tribological behaviour of natural fiber (luffa cylindrical) reinforced hybrid epoxy composite

Abstract

Environmental awareness today is motivating the researchers worldwide on the studies of natural fibre reinforced polymer composite as cost effective option to synthetic fibre. The easy availability of natural fibres and manufacturing process have tempted researchers to try locally available inexpensive fibres and to study their feasibility of reinforcement purposes and to what extent they satisfy the required specifications of good reinforced polymer composite for tribological applications. With this background in this present work the effect of stacking sequence on erosive wear behaviour of untreated luffa cylindrica fibre and glass fabric reinforced epoxy hybrid composites has been investigated experimentally. Composite laminates were fabricated by hand lay-up technique. All the composites were made with a total of 4 plies, by varying the number and position of glass layers so as to obtain five different stacking sequences. The erosion rates of these composites have been evaluated at different impingement angles (30º,45º,60°,90°) and at four different particle speeds (v=48, 70, 82,109 m/s). Silica sand with size 200-250 μm of irregular shapes is used as erodent. The impingement angle was found to have a significant influence on the erosion rate. The composite laminate showed semi ductile behaviour with maximum erosion at 45-600 impingement angles. The Factograpic analysis of the eroded surface was examined by SEM. From the study it is concluded that the erosive wear behaviour of natural fibre luffacylindrica can be improved significantly by hybridizing with synthetic fibre glass.