Wear and frictional behaviour of composites filled with agro-based waste materials

Abstract

In this paper, the authors present and discuss the wear and frictional behaviour of glass/epoxy composites filled with agro-based waste materials. Three different types of agro-based waste materials were chosen. These are the following: (a) rice husk, (b) wheat husk and (c) coconut coir. The waste materials were randomly distributed during fabrication of the glass/epoxy composites. The intrinsic influence of sliding parameters – that is, sliding speed and applied load – on both the wear and friction behaviour of the engineered composites was experimentally investigated, and an attempt was made to compare these with each other. The morphologies of both the worn test specimens and the sliding disc were examined to establish the specific mechanism governing wear. The rice-husk-filled glass/epoxy was revealed to have the maximum wear resistance among the developed composites. It was also observed that the wear rate and coefficient of friction of the developed composites decreases with an increase in both applied load (10 to 30 N) and sliding speed (1 to 3 m/s) for a constant sliding distance of 3000 m.