Wear response of glass fiber and ceramic tile-reinforced hybrid epoxy matrix composites

This study presents the tribological behavior of epoxy matrix composites containing two different fillers. The composites contain fillers with different particle sizes (< 90 µm and in the range of 150–300 µm) and different wall tile to glass fiber waste ratios (55:5, 50:10 and 40:20). The total amount of filler was fixed to 60 wt% in all of the composites to reveal the effect of variations in filler content on properties. The physico-mechanical properties, such as bulk density, porosity, impact resistance, shore hardness, flexural strength and wear characteristics of developed materials were determined. Tribological tests were carried out by ball-on-disk configuration and rotational sliding at room temperature against 6-Co/WC ball with a diameter of 3 mm. 3N of constant test load was applied and the wear distance was kept as 400 m. The results showed that the steady-state coefficient of frictions was changed in the range 0.38–0.47 and the wear rate was obtained between 1.74 × 10−5 and 1.09 × 10−4 mm3/Nm. When the coarser particle size filler was used, it resulted in worsening of the wear resistance. It can generally be concluded that the properties were improved with the increasing amount of wall tile addition, and also better properties were obtained in both types of filled composites compared to the epoxy matrix.