Friction and wear behavior of alkali-treated corn husk fiber reinforced polyester composites

This paper presents the friction and wear behavior of alkali-treated corn husk fiber reinforced polyester composites. In this research, prepared the alkali treated corn husk fiber reinforced polyester composite through hand layup technique and investigated the physical, mechanical, and wear behavior of the composites. Prepared composite exhibited good hardness, impact, and tensile strength of 65.87, 9.25 J, and 48.52 MPa, respectively. Then, studied the friction and wear behavior by changing the applied load (30, 40, 50 N), sliding distance (500, 750, 1,000 m), and sliding velocity (2, 3, 4 m/s) using L9 Taguchi technique in pin-on-disk apparatus as per ASTM G-99. From the results, it is observed that, applied load has influenced more on wear and friction followed by sliding velocity and sliding distance. Increases in applied load and sliding distance led to increase the wear and friction. A decrease in sliding velocity led to a reduction in friction and wear. Further, analyzed the wear and friction using contour plot. Wear mechanism has been studied through SEM analysis.