Synthesis and Erosion Wear Analysis of Short Bamboo Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites Filled with Ceramic Fillers

Abstract

Hybrid natural fiber reinforced composites with ceramic fillers has been fabricated. Two ceramic fillers (Alumina and Silicon Carbide) have been used for the synthesis of composites and the samples have been fabricated with hand layup technique. 10% and 20% weight percentage of filler materials have been used for the different sets of composite samples. Erosion wear analysis of these composite samples has been carried out at different impingement angles (30,45,60,75, and 90) with varying impact velocities (48 m/s, 70 m/s, 82 m/s, and 109 m/s) and with varying erodent size (108, 125,150, 180µm). Results for the composites with and without filler have been compared. It has been observed that composites filled with particulate filler shows improvement in wear resistance properties as compared to composites without filler. Among the two fillers, Al2O3 has shown better resistance as compared to silicon carbide. A scanning electron microscope has been used to study the morphology of eroded surfaces and the mode of material removal.