Wear Behavior of Short Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite with Nanoclay Modification

Abstract

This study is aimed to evaluate the effect of nanoclay incorporation on wear properties of short glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite. Three different nanoclay contents of 1.0, 3.0 and 5.0wt% were dispersed into epoxy resin using a three-roll mill machine. The fibers were dispersed using mechanical mixer machine. Dry sliding and abrasive wear tests were conducted using pin-on-disc and abrasive resistance tribometer, respectively. The tests were conducted under 30N load and at 300rpm speed for 10000m sliding distance. The addition of nanoclay filler in epoxy polymer has shown improvement towards wear properties of GFRP composite, of up to 65% and 45% under dry sliding and abrasive wear resistance, respectively. The nanoclay appears to improve the microstructural strength leading to better load carrying capacity of the composite, advancing its effect as secondary reinforcement to the polymer composite.