Parametric Appraisal of Erosion Process in Polyster Glass Fiber Composites

Abstract

The present work describes the development and characterisation of a new set of hybrid polymer composites consisting of glass fibre reinforcement, polyester resin and red mud particulate fillers. Red mud is an industrial waste generated during the production of alumina by Bayer’s process. The newly developed composites are characterized with respect to their physical, mechanical and erosion wear characteristics. Experiments are carried out to study the effect of red mud content, particle velocity, impingement angle and erodent size on the solid particle erosion behaviour of these epoxy based hybrid composites. Then the significant control factors and their interactions predominantly influencing the wear rate are identified by using Taguchi method. The study reveals that the filler content in the composites, impact velocity and impingement angle have substantial influence in determining the rate of material loss from the composite surface due to erosion. Scanning electron microscopy of the eroded surface of the composites is performed for observation of the features such as crack formation, fiber fragmentation and matrix body deformation