Influence of fillers on tribological behaviour of glass-coir reinforced epoxy composites - An ANN Approach

Abstract

Composite materials are widely used in many industries today because of its properties. Some of the unique properties are corrosion resistance, high stiffness, strength and strength to weight ratio. Most of the metal exhibit the same properties but when weight plays a pivotal role, composites are suitable. In the current study, glass, coir, epoxy and MoS2 are used as materials. Fabrication of composites were done using vacuum assisted hand lay-up method. After fabrication, different experiments were performed to study the tribological behaviour of hybrid composites using ASTM Standards. From the experimental study, it is clear that composites with fillers played a pivotal role when compared with unfilled one. Filler percentage were varied between 0-6%. Significant improvement was observed after adding the filler. Hybrid composites with filler showed better wear and frictional resistance when compared with unfilled one. Artificial neural network method was also employed for validation. From ANN, it was clear that, experimental results were mapped with the output of ANN.