Comparative performance assessment of pineapple and Kevlar fibers based friction composites

Abstract

Novel friction composites materials using pineapple fiber as a sustainable alternative for automotive industry were developed by increasing its amount from 5−20 wt.% in the step of 5 %. To compare the performance of pineapple fiber, friction composites with 5−10 wt.% of Kevlar fiber were also manufactured. The results of physico-mechanical properties reveal that density, hardness and ash content decrease whereas water absorption, porosity and compressibility increase with the increased pineapple/Kevlar fiber contents. Further, the friction and fade performance were found to decrease whereas the recovery performance and wear was found to increase with increased pineapple fiber content. Among pineapple fiber reinforced composites, the best composite is the one having 5 wt.% pineapple fibers that exhibits the highest performance in terms of coefficient of friction (0.548), lowest fade-% (36.31 %) along with the lowest specific wear rate (3.49 × 10−8 cm3/N-m). Nonetheless, the results show that the 5 wt.% Kevlar fiber based composite reveals good performance in terms of coefficient of friction (0.592) with slightly lower fade-% (35.98 %), recovery-% (107.43 %) and specific wear rate (3.46 × 10−8 cm3/N-m) when comparing to 5 wt.% pineapple fiber based composites. Finally, the possible wear mechanisms were discussed with the help of composites worn surface morphologies. Keywords: Pineapple fiber, Kevlar fiber, Polymer composite, Brake materials