Erosive Wear Modeling of Polymeric Composite Materials

To study the behavior of composite materials to erosive wear, we have carried out bench tests simulating the erosive wear according to ASTM D 673 standard. The principle consists in impacting composite specimens by an abrasive water jet containing sand particles, taking into account several parameters affecting the erosive wear. The first material consisting of thermoplastic matrix reinforced with E-glass fiber and the second with 8H Satin carbon fiber where as the thermoset matrix material was reinforced with 2/2 Twill glass fiber. Influential parameters such as composite hardness, abrasive particle size, speed, and impact angle were taken into account. During the experimental study, only the most influential parameters have been taken into account such as: hardness of the composite materials, abrasive size, abrasive particle speed, and angle of impact. Applying Design of experiment (DOE) strategy with experimental planning, a mathematical model was obtained describing the wear of these materials as a function of the most influential parameters led to the following results: Wear is maximum when the angle of incidence of the jet is normal to the specimen surfaces; wear is minimum when the angle of incidence of the jet is (α = 30°); mass loss is proportional to abrasive particle size and speed and inversely proportional to composite hardness.