Mechanical and erosive wear behavior of rubber wood particulate reinforced epoxy composite

Abstract

Natural fibers have many advantages like biodegradable, recyclable, easy availability and low cost along with high specific strength and mechanical properties which are comparable to synthetic fibers, creating interest among researchers worldwide for their suitable use in composite industries. Rubber wood is one such natural fiber whose potential as reinforcement in polymer composite is not yet explored till date. The present work based on the study of the mechanical properties and solid particle erosion wear behavior of epoxy/rubber wood composite. Composites were fabricated by the hand-lay method by incorporating various weight fraction of rubber wood particulates starting from 10-40 wt. % (RWC1-RWC4) with an increment of 10 wt. %. The erosive test was performed on the composites with the help of air-jet erosion tester having various operating parameters such as impact angle (30° to 90°) and abrasive particle velocity (48 m/s to 109 m/s). The results concluded that epoxy/rubber wood composite is semi ductile in nature. The worn surface morphology of the wear test of composite samples were analyzed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM).