Three-body abrasive wear behaviour of fiber reinforced vinyl ester composites

Fiber reinforced polymer composites are generally known to possess high strength and attractive wear resistance in dry sliding conditions. The behaviour of such composites performing in abrasive wear situations needs a proper understanding. Hence, in the present work of the three-body abrasive wear behaviour of two dimensional stitched carbon fabric, E-glass woven fabric and three dimensional E-glass woven fabric reinforced vinyl ester composites was investigated. Three-body abrasive wear tests were conducted using rubber wheel abrasion tester (RWAT) under different abrading distances at two loads, wherein the wear volume loss were found to increase and that of specific wear rate decrease. The results indicate that the type of fabric in vinyl ester have a significant influence on wear under varied abrading distance/loads. Further, it was found that carbon fabric reinforced vinyl ester composite exhibited lower wear rate compared to E-glass woven fabric reinforced vinyl ester composites. The worn surface features, as examined through scanning electron microscope (SEM), show higher levels of broken glass fiber ill two dimensional glass woven fabric reinforced vinyl ester composite compared to carbon fabric and three dimensional glass fabric reinforced vinyl ester composites.