Investigation on Dry Sliding Wear Behavior of Nylon66/GnP Nano-composite

The tribological behavior of graphene nano platelets (GnP) reinforced Nylon66 polymer Nano composites were studied using a pin-on-disc apparatus under dry sliding conditions. The influence of wear control factors like applied load, velocity, sliding distance and weight percentage of GnP reinforcement on the responses like specific wear rate and frictional coefficient were investigated. Nano composites were developed by melt mixing of various weight fractions of GnP (0/0.5/1/2) with nylon 66 using twin screw extruder. A design of experiments based on the Taguchi technique was performed to acquire data in a controlled way and was successfully used to identify the optimal combinations of control factors influencing the outputs. Analysis of variance was employed to investigate the influence and contribution of control factors on the responses. The results showed that the inclusion of GnP as reinforcing material in Nylon66 Nano composites, decreases the friction coefficient and increases the wear resistance of the Nano composites significantly. © 2016, The Institution of Engineers (India).