Investigation in to Mechanical and Tribological Behaviour of Orange Peel Reinforced Epoxy Composite

Abstract

Over the last century, polymers have emerged as one of the most indispensable components used in everyday life, epoxy or poly-epoxide being one such example. Until recently, synthetic filler materials have been the preferred choice for reinforcement of epoxy to improve its mechanical and tribological properties. However, natural fibers are emerging as suitable alternatives to synthetic materials for obvious reasons. Several research efforts have been put to study the effectiveness of natural fiber-based materials on the mechanical behaviour of epoxy composites, focusing mainly on fibers and their weight percent within the composites. In the present work, an attempt has been made to prepare and characterize orange peel (particulate) reinforced epoxy composite for the tribological application. Composites are having 10, 20 and 30% weight fraction of orange peel were made using hand layup method and were tested on a standard pin on disc wear tester. All the test have been carried out according to the ASTM standards.