Wear behavior of glass microballoon based closed cell foam

Abstract

Present work deals with dry sliding wear response of hollow glass microballoons reinforced lightweight epoxy syntactic (closed cell) foams using a pin on disc apparatus. Influence of glass microballoons content on wear behavior of hollow glass microballoons/epoxy foams in dry sliding mode is investigated. Effects of sliding velocity (1 and 3 m s-1), normal load (30-50 N), sliding distance (1 and 3 km) and glass microballoons content (20, 40 and 60 volume%) are investigated. The rate of wear declines with increasing glass microballoons content and sliding distance. Syntactic foams with perfectly spherical glass microballoons exhibit enhanced resistance to wear as compared to neat resin samples due to better constituents compatibility. Specific wear rate shows noticeably decreasing magnitude with higher applied load. Decrease in frictional coefficient is observed with higher filler loadings. Lowest wear rate of 1.6 mm3 km-1 is noted for sliding velocity and load of 3 m s-1 and 50 N respectively with 60 filler volume %. Low wear values with higher glass microballoon loadings support the feasibility of utilizing such foams in wear-prone applications in weight sensitive structures. Wear mechanisms are studied using scanning electron microscopy. Finally, property map is presented to compare the observed wear results with the existing studies available on dry sliding wear response. © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd.