Mechanical characterizations and development of erosive wear model for Al 2 O 3 -filled short glass fiber-reinforced polymer composites

Abstract

In the present work, short glass fiber-reinforced polyester-based hybrid composites are fabricated by the incorporation of Al₂O₃ particulates with three different weight percentages (0 wt.%, 10 wt.% and 20 wt.%) to evaluate their physical, mechanical, and thermo-mechanical behavior. A theoretical model has been developed for erosive wear conditions and results are compared with the experimental outcomes in order to validate the model. The mechanical properties are simulated using an explicit FE code software ANSYS. In this work, erosion test is conducted by using popular evolutionary Taguchi’s (L₂₇) orthogonal array design to optimize the experimental results. It is observed from the analysis that the peak erosion rate occurs at 75° impingement angle for Al₂O₃-filled composites, whereas for unfilled composites, it occurs at 60° impingement angle. The thermo-mechanical characteristics such as storage modulus (E′), loss modulus (E″), and damping properties (Tan δ) are investigated in the temperature range of 25–200 ℃. It is observed that the slope corresponding to the temperature-dependent decay of the storage modulus for 10 wt.% and 20 wt.%, Al₂O₃-filled composite is much higher as compared to 0 wt.% Al₂O₃-filled composite in the temperature range of 25–75 ℃. However, the storage modulus for 10 wt.% and 20 wt.% Al₂O₃-filled composites remain almost same in the range of 25–60 ℃. Finally, the surface morphology of the eroded composites is examined by using scanning electron microscope and the possible wear mechanisms are discussed.