Assessment of mechanical and three-body abrasive wear peculiarity of TiO2- and ZnO-filled bi-directional E-glass fibre-based polyester composites

This paper is about the development of bi-directional E-glass fibre-based polyester composites filled with zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) fillers, respectively. The mechanical characterization of these composites is performed. The three-body abrasive wear characteristic of fabricated composites has been assessed under different operating conditions. For this, the three-body abrasion test is done on dry abrasion test rig (TR-50) and analysed using Taguchi’s experimental design scheme and analysis of variance. The results obtained from these experiments are also validated against existing microscopic models of Ratner–Lancaster and Wang. A good linear relationship is obtained between specific wear rate and the reciprocal of ultimate strength and strain at tensile fracture of these composites. It indicates that the experimentally obtained results are in good agreement with these existing models. It is found that the tensile strength decreases with filler loading, while hardness, flexural strength, inter-laminar shear strength and impact strength are increased. TiO2-filled composites were observed to perform better than ZnO-filled composites under abrasive wear situations. The wear mechanism is studied in correlation with the SEM micrograph of the worn-out surface of composites. Performance optimization of composites is done by using VIKOR method.