Effect of Micro-size Cenosphere Content on Friction and Dry Sliding Wear Behavior of Vinylester Composites - A Taguchi Method

In this paper the friction and wear characteristics of vinylester and vinylester composites have been investigated under dry sliding conditions for different applied normal load, sliding speed, sliding distance, roughness and filler content. The experiments have been carried on a pin on disc arrangement at normal room temperature condition. The parameters like normal load, speed, sliding distance and percentage of filler content on the friction and wear rate has been investigated. In this study, a plan of experiments based on the techniques of Taguchi was performed to acquire data in a controlled way. An orthogonal array L27 (3(13)) and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) were applied to investigate the influence of process parameters on the coefficient of friction and sliding wear behaviour of these composites. The Taguchi design of experiment approach eliminates the need for repeated experiments and thus saves time, material and cost. The results showed that with increase in the applied normal load and sliding speed the coefficient of friction and specific wear rate decreases under dry sliding conditions. It is also observed that the thin film formed on the counterface is effective in improving the tribological characteristics. The results showed that the inclusion of cenosphere as filler material in vinylester composites increases the wear resistance significantly.