Estimating the wear behavior of hdpe composites reinforced with nano alumina fillers using taguchi method

Abstract

High-density polyethylene (HDPE), like other polymers is important in many applications due to its unique properties like low cost, weight, and availability. Recently, HDPE reinforced with ceramic fillers was considered in biomedical applications, especially in fabricating joint/bone replacements. Therefore, these applications required high wear resistance materials to serve under specific conditions. In this work, an optimization with Taguchi method was considered to associate the influence of nano alumina fillers, normal applied load, and sliding time on the wear rate values for hip joint replacement applications. In the first step, a TEM test was conducted on the prepared composites to ensure that the nanofillers were distributed within the matrix phase without agglomeration. The results indicated that the optimum wear resistance was seen in a composite made of HD PE +3% wt nano alumina fillers with a specific wear rate equal to 2.6652 10-6  in mm3/N.m, as well as the most effective parameters on wear rate are arranged as nano content, applied load, and the sliding time. In contrast, SEM observation was considered to understand the wear mechanism. The addition of nano Alumina fillers prevented the test specimen surface from lessening by creating a transfer film separating the contact zone results from the self-lubricant behavior generated in prepared composites. In contrast, deep grooves, adhesive marks, and debris particles were generated in pure HDPE specimens, resulting in low hardness and weak wear resistance. 

Keywords

• high
• density polyethylene specific wear rate nano alumina design of experiments taguchi