Natural-synthetic fiber reinforced homogeneous and functionally graded vinylester composites: Effect of bagasse-Kevlar hybridization on wear behavior

Abstract

In this work, vinylester resin based and hybrid Kevlar-bagasse fiber reinforced homogeneous and graded composites were developed and evaluated for wear performance on a pin-on-disc machine. An orthogonal array (L16) was applied to examine the influence of four tribological control factors i.e. fiber content, normal load, sliding distance and sliding velocity. The experimental results indicate that normal load emerges as the most important factor affecting the wear rate of vinylester based graded and homogeneous composites with a contribution ratio of 36.33% and 32.09% respectively. Furthermore, composites worn surfaces were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy and the possible wear mechanism was studied. Keywords: Bagasse fiber, Kevlar fiber, Graded composites, Sliding wear, Microscopy