Solid particle erosion studies on polyphenylene sulfide composites and prediction on erosion data using artificial neural networks

Solid particle erosion behavior of polyphenylene sulfide, reinforced by short glass fibers with varying fiber content (0-40 wt%) has been studied. Steady-state erosion rates have been evaluated at different impact angles (15-90 degrees) and impact velocities (25-66 m/s) using silica sand particles (200 +/- 50 mu m) as an erodent. PPS and its composites exhibited maximum erosion rate at 30, impact angle indicating ductile erosion behavior. Though PPS is a brittle thermoplastic, incubation period was found for neat resin and its composites at normal impact (alpha = 90 degrees). The erosion rates of PIPS composites increased with increasing amount of glass fiber. Morphology of eroded surfaces was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and possible wear mechanisms were discussed. Also, artificial neural networks (ANNs) technique has been used to predict the erosion rate based on the experimentally measured database of PPS composites. The results show that the predicted data are well acceptable when comparing them to measured values. A well-trained ANN is expected to be very helpful for prediction of wear data for systematic parameter studies. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.