Sliding wear behaviour of an epoxy system reinforced with particulate fly ash filler

Abstract

Neat epoxy and epoxy containing different volume fraction of as received fy ash particulate fller bearing composites were cast, sectioned and subjected to pin-on-disk tests for evaluating the wear behaviour. The wear tests were conducted for 1 kilometre distance under 1 kg load for sliding velocity ranging from 1 to 5 m/s. The results showed that both neat epoxy and fy ash bearing composites exhibit differing magnitudes of wear loss, it being highest for unreinforced neat epoxy system. The data trends point to the fact that wears loss decreases with increasing content of fy ash in composites. To explain these differences, the wear surfaces were examined under scanning electron microscope and the features thus observed were correlated with the mechanical data.