Tribological properties of natural fiber hybrid reinforced polymer composite

Abstract

In present scenario natural fibers are abundantly being utilized for production and improvement of composites with polymer matrices. In the present work produced mat/woven structure of Luffa cylindrica (loofah), coconut coir (medially coarse and fine) particulates and short bagasse fibers from the rind of sugarcane were utilized to form hybrid polymer composites with epoxy matrix. The fabrication was done with mercerized natural fibers in epoxy matrix by hand-layup technique. Experiments were conducted to examine erosive wear properties of fabricated composites using an airjet erosive wear tester at room temperature. A steam of silica sand is chosen as the erodent striking the composite specimens with different impact velocities and pressures for an exposure period of 10 minutes. The erodent geed rate is kept constant. The impingement angle is set at 300, 450, 600 and 900. The erosion rate was calculated in each case to study their tribological properties.

Keywords

• Loofah
• coir
• bagasse
• epoxy
• hand lay-up
• erosion.
• Polymer composite