Study of Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Abs/ZnO Polymer Composites

Abstract

A B S T R A C T The mechanical and tribological properties of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) polymer filled with micron-sized zinc oxide (ZnO) are studied in this paper. The mechanical properties viz. tensile modulus, tensile strength, flexural modulus, flexural strength and micro-hardness are studied. For mechanical tests, ABS/ZnO composite materials are developed with 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt% of filler. It is seen from the results that the tensile and flexural moduli increase with increase up to considered filler content, but the tensile strength and flexural strength increase up to 15 wt% and then start decreasing. The tribological behavior (friction coefficient and specific wear rate) of ABS composites filled with ZnO filler sliding against the steel counter face are investigated varying filler content (A), normal load (B) and sliding speed (C) with three levels of each parameter. The experiments are conducted on a multitribotester (block-on-roller configuration) using L27 orthogonal array (OA) of Taguchi analysis. To optimize the multiple responses (friction coefficient and specific wear rate), grey relational analysis is performed for the experimental results. It is seen from the analysis that the highest level of design parameters (A3B3C3) provides minimum friction coefficient and specific wear rate. The most influential factor which affects the tribological properties is normal load (B) followed by sliding speed (C) and filler content (A). Finally, a confirmation test is also carried out to validate the optimized results and it is seen that the grey relational grade is increased about 22% from initial to optimum conditions. The worn surfaces of ABS filled with micron-sized ZnO are also investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. It is seen that there are longitudinal grooves caused by micro-cutting effect and the wear mechanism is mainly abrasive in nature