Effect of stacking sequence on physical, mechanical and tribological properties of glass-carbon hybrid composites

A study was done to determine the effect of best stacking sequence (position and orientation) on the mechanical properties, friction and wear response of hybrid composites. The main purpose of the study was to determine the best available stacking sequence for which the physical, mechanical and three body abrasive wear rate is optimum. Test for mechanical properties (tensile strength, flexural strength, inter laminar shear strength, impact strength and hardness) was done on glass-carbon hybrid composites. The composites were then subjected to test for three body abrasive wear on a designed experimental setup. Five different factors (sliding velocity, fabric weight percentage, normal load, sliding distance and abrasive particle size) varied in steps to evaluate the friction and three body abrasive wear response of the composites. The design of experiment using Taguchi's orthogonal array and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to find out minimum specific wear rate. The results revealed the significance in arrangement of two different layers of fabric (glass and carbon) and the difference in properties obtained by them. Using Taguchi experimental analysis it has been observed that three body abrasive wear rate is minimum at 72 cm/s sliding velocity, 30 wt.% fabric content, 80 N normal load, 90 m sliding distance and 125 mu m abrasive particle size. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) studies revealed the dynamics of three-body abrasive wear and underlying micro-mechanisms that result in the analysis of three body abrasive wear.