Mechanical and dry sliding wear characterization of short glass fiber reinforced polyester-based homogeneous and their functionally graded composite materials

Abstract

In this research work, short glass fiber has been used to fabricate polyester-based homogeneous composites and their functionally graded material. Vertical centrifugal casting technique and simple mechanical stirring is used for fabricating functionally graded materials and homogeneous composites, respectytively. Wear tests are conducted over a range of sliding velocities (1.57–3.66 m/s), normal load (10–30 N), fiber contents (0–6 wt%), and sliding distances (1–3 km). Friction and wear characteristics of developed materials are successfully analyzed using Taguchi design of experiment scheme and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Artificial neural network approach is also applied to the friction and wear data for subsequent validation. Out of all samples fabricated it is found that 6 wt% short glass fiber polyester-based functionally graded materials exhibit lowest specific wear rate. Additions of short glass fiber in polyester-based functionally graded materials have an incisive effect on tensile and flexural strength in comparison to homogeneous composites. The morphology of worn composite specimens has been examined by scanning electron microscopy to understand about dominant wear mechanisms.