FRICTION AND WEAR DISPLAYED BY THE SCRATCH OF EPOXY REINFORCED BY NATURAL FIBERS

Document Type : Original Article

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Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, P. N. 61111, El-Minia, EGYPT.

Abstract

The present work investigates the possibility of reinforcing epoxy by natural fibers such as wood, rice straw and palm fibers to be used as floor material. The abrasion resistance of the tested composites was investigated by scratch test where friction coefficient as well wear scar width were determined.
 
The experiments revealed that friction coefficient increased as the content of the wood fibers reinforcing epoxy matrix increased. Besides, friction coefficient decreased with increasing load, because the stress applied by the indenter exceeded the yield strength of epoxy so that the resistance to scratch decreased. In addition to that, the adhesion of wood fibers into epoxy matrix was relatively tougher compared to rice straw and palm fibers. Rice straw and palm fibers caused friction values lower than that observed for wood fibers.
 
Wood fibers reinforced composites showed slight wear increase with increasing their content, while composites reinforced by rice straw and palm fibers showed minimum values at certain content of fibers. In addition to that, as the load increased wear increased. The low content of straw and palm fibers strengthened and resisted the abrasion of the matrix. While, the increase of fiber content decreased the strength of the bond between the fibers and the epoxy matrix leading to the increase of the material removal during scratch. Based the above the experimental observation, the abrasion resistance was enhanced at certain content of rice straw and palm fibers, while composites reinforced by wood fibers can be recommended to be applied as floor materials due to their high value of friction coefficient.

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