Experimental Studies on Abrasion Wear and Thermal Characteristics of Plain Derived Flax Woven Fabric Reinforced Epoxy Composites

Abstract

Nowadays, natural plant fibers are being explored and employed for various industrial applications owing to their attributes such as low weight to strength ratio, cost effectiveness, biodegradability and environment-friendliness. In this work, alkali and trimethoxymethyl silane (ATS) treated plain derived irregular basket woven flax fabric-reinforced epoxy composites (F-E) namely 0-TFE (Neat epoxy), 25-TFE, 35-TFE and 45-TFE with 0, 25, 35 and 45 wt.% fiber contents respectively were prepared by compression molding at room temperature, and studied for their abrasive wear and thermal degradation characteristics as per the standard procedures. Abrasive test was performed on pin on disc with a track diameter of 80 mm (ASTM G-99-05) for varying applied load and different abrasive grits condition for a constant speed of the disc. Wear outcome revealed that wear loss, specific wear rate (SWR) and coefficient of friction (COF) were influenced by the combined effect of applied load and abrasive grits. The composite 45-TFE exhibited better tribological properties amongst the prepared lot. Furthermore, thermal analysis revealed that the fabricated F-E composites are sufficiently thermally stable for structural applications and ATS treated- plain derived flax woven reinforcement enhanced the thermal stability. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to understand the wear mechanisms of composites.

Keywords

• flax-epoxy composites
• abrasion wear
• thermogravimetric analysis
• plain-derived woven
• irregular basket woven
• woven composites
• vicat softening temperature