Evaluation of surface response of SiC and fly ash-filled Prosopis juliflora fibre-reinforced epoxy composites under dry sliding wear conditions using Taguchi method

Abstract

Abstract Prosopis juliflora (PJ) fibre-reinforced polymer composites are fabricated with fly ash and SiC as fillers with different weight percentages. Jute layers are also sandwiched for added strength in the structure. The wear behaviour is found for the prepared composition of samples. Pin-on-disc wear testing apparatus is used for the wear performance along with the design of experiments approach using orthogonal arrays of Taguchi’s. The effect of the input parameters (load, sliding velocity, speed) is studied on wear resistance. The experimental design creates sliding wear evaluations based on Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array to identify the most dominating factors influencing the wear rate. This study demonstrates that the most important component affecting the sliding wear rate of the composite materials is followed by the sliding velocity, speed, and load. The result of the wear rate decreases with an increase in filler content and also increases with sliding velocity. The samples with fly ash and SiC fillers reportedly seemed to have the best wear rates.

Keywords

• Prosopis julifora
• Fly ash
• Silicon carbide
• Taguchi method
• Wear