1. TEMPLATE DESIGN © 2008 www.PosterPresentations.com Effect of Impingement Angle and Erodent Temperature on Erosion Wear Behavior of Bamboo Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites Sandhyarani Biswas 1* Alok Satapathy 1 Amar Patnaik 2 Mechanical Engineering Department 1 National Institute of Technology, Rourkela-769008, India 2 National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur-177005, India ABSTACT EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS Composite Fabrication RESULT AND DISCUSSION Steady state erosion (Effect of impingement angle of erosion rate) The fabrication of the various composite materials is carried out through the hand lay-up technique. Roving bi-directional bamboo mats are reinforced in particulate filled epoxy (LY 556) composites. The epoxy resin and the hardener (HY951) are supplied by Ciba Geigy India Ltd. Four different fillers such as: copper slag, red mud, alumina and Silicon carbide are used in this study. Copper slag collected from the plant site of Hindustan Copper Limited, at Ghatsila, India. Red mud collected from NALCO aluminium refinery at Damanjodi, India. Aluminium oxide and silicon carbide powders of similar size range are obtained from NICE Ltd India. All the four fillers are sieved to a particle size range of 80-100 μm. The average thickness of bamboo fibers is about 1.5 mm. The extracted fibers are dried in an oven at 105°C for 72 hours to remove moisture. Each ply of bamboo-fiber is of dimension 200 × 200 mm 2. A stainless steel mould having dimensions of 210 × 210 × 40 mm 3 is used. The low temperature curing epoxy resin and corresponding hardener are mixed in a ratio of 10:1 by weight as recommended. The composites prepared for this study are designated as Z1, Z2, Z3, Z4, Z5, Z6, Z7, Z8 and Z9 respectively. The detailed compositions along with the designation are presented in Table 1. The cast of each composite is cured under a load of about 50 kg for 24 hours before it removed from the mould. Then this cast is post cured in the air for another 24 hours after removing out of the mould. Specimens of suitable dimension are cut using a diamond cutter for erosion testing. Utmost care has been taken to maintain uniformity and homogeneity of the composite. Table 1. Designation and detailed composition of the composites OPTIONAL LOGO HERE For a composite material, its surface damage by solid particle erosion depends on many factors. One of the most important characteristics of erosion is the variation of erosion rate with impingement angle. Determining the effect of the impingement angle on erosion is the most sensitive way of studying the mechanism of erosion. The erosion rate is also greatly affected by the erodent temperature. In the present work a series of systematic erosion tests were carried out to investigate the influence of impingement angle and erodent temperature on erosion mechanisms of bamboo fiber reinforced epoxy composites using an erosion test rig. Bamboo fiber reinforced epoxy composites are fabricated using red mud, copper slag, Al 2 O 3 and SiC particles as filler materials. The erosion rates of these composites have been evaluated at different impingement angles (15-90°) and at different erodent temperatures (30-60°C) and the conclusions drawn from the above investigation are discussed. Keywards : Solid particle erosion; Impingement angle; Erodent temperature; Bamboo fiber; Filler In the present study, dry silica sand of different particle sizes (300µm, 450µm and 600µm) are used as erodent. The samples are cleaned in acetone, dried and weighed to an accuracy of 0.1 mg before and after the erosion trials using a precision electronic balance. The weight loss is recorded for subsequent calculation of erosion rate. The ratio of the weight loss to the weight of the eroding particles causing the loss is then computed as a dimensionless incremental erosion rate. The process is repeated till the erosion rate attains a constant value called steady state erosion rate. The variations of steady-state erosion rates of bamboo-epoxy and glass-epoxy composites filled with red mud particulates with the angle of impingement are presented in Fig. 2. The erosion behavior of materials is broadly classified in the literature as ductile and brittle depending on the variation of erosion rate with impact angle. Ductile behavior is characterized by maximum erosion at low impact angles in the range o f 10–30 0. On the other hand, if maximum erosion occurs at α = 90 0, then the behavior is brittle. However, reinforced composites have been found to exhibit semi-ductile behavior with maximum erosion rate at intermediate angles typically in the range of 45–60 0 [1]. In the present study, the variation of erosion wear rate of the composites with impingement angle is studied by conducting experiments under specified operating conditions. The result shows the peak erosion taking place at an impingement angle of 60 0 for the unfilled as well as the red mud (RM) and alumina filled bamboo-epoxy composites, whereas composite samples filled with copper slag, the maximum erosion rate is recorded at an impingement angle of 45 0 under similar experimental conditions. However, composite samples filled with SiC, the maximum erosion rate is recorded at an impingement angle of 75 0. This clearly indicates that these composites respond to solid particle impact neither in a purely ductile nor in a purely brittle manner. This behaviour can be termed as semi-ductile in nature which is in agreement with the trend observed by previous investigators [1]. This study on the erosion behaviour of particulated filled epoxy composites with bamboo reinforcement leads to the following conclusions: 1.Hybrid composites suitable for applications in highly erosive environments can be prepared by reinforcement of bamboo fibers and filling of micro-sized fillers such as alumina, SiC, red mud and copper slag particles in epoxy resin. 2.Study of influence of impingement angle on erosion rate of the composites filled with different weight percentage of particulates reveal their semi-ductile nature with respect to erosion wear. The result shows the peak erosion taking place at an impingement angle of 60 0 for the unfilled as well as the red mud (RM) and alumina filled bamboo-epoxy composites, whereas composite samples filled with copper slag, the maximum erosion rate is recorded at an impingement angle of 45 0 under similar experimental conditions. However, composite samples filled with SiC, the maximum erosion rate is recorded at an impingement angle of 75 0.This clearly indicates that these composites respond to solid particle impact neither in a purely ductile nor in a purely brittle manner. This behaviour can be termed as semi-ductile in nature. The erosion rate is also greatly affected by the erodent temperature. 3.For all the composite samples, the erosion rates remain almost unaffected by the change in erodent temperature from ambient to 40 0 C. 4.Possible use of these composites in components such as pipes carrying coal dust, helicopter fan blades, industrial fans, desert structures, low cost housing, etc. is recommended. In future, this study can be extended to new hybrid composites using other potential fillers and the resulting experimental findings can be similarly analyzed. CONCLUSIONS DesignationComposition Z1Epoxy +50wt% bamboo fiber Z2Epoxy +50wt% bamboo fiber + 10wt% Red mud Z3Epoxy +50wt% bamboo fiber +20wt% Red mud Z4Epoxy +50wt% bamboo fiber +10wt% Copper slag Z5Epoxy +50wt% bamboo fiber +20wt% Copper slag Z6Epoxy +50wt% bamboo fiber +10wt% Alumina Z7Epoxy +50wt% bamboo fiber +20wt% Alumina Z8Epoxy +50wt% bamboo fiber +10wt% SiC Z9Epoxy +50wt% bamboo fiber +20wt% SiC The solid particle erosion experiments are carried out as per ASTM G76 using a standard erosion test rig. The test rig consists of an air compressor, an air drying unit, a conveyor belt-type particle feeder and an air particle mixing and accelerating chamber. The dried and compressed air is then mixed with the silica sand which is fed constantly by a conveyor belt feeder into the mixing chamber and then accelerated by passing the mixture through a convergent brass nozzle of 3 mm internal diameter. The set up is capable of creating reproducible erosive situations for assessing erosion wear resistance of the composite samples. The erodent particles impact the specimen which can be held at different angles with respect to the direction of erodent flow. The apparatus is equipped with a heater which can regulate and maintain the erodent temperature at any pre-determined fixed value during an erosion trial. Erosion test apparatus Figure 1. Schematic diagram of an erosion test rig Figure 2. Effect of impingement angle on the erosion wear rate of the composites Figure 3. Effect of erodent temperature on the erosion wear rate of the composites REFERENCES Similarly, the variation of erosion rate of unfilled and red mud filled composites with erodent temperature is shown in Fig. 3. This figure also presents the erosion rate of all the particulate filled composites with bamboo reinforcement for different erodent temperatures. Erosion trials are conducted at seven different temperatures under normal impact condition. Effect of erodent temperature on erosion rate It is seen, in this figure, that for all the composite samples, the erosion rates remain almost unaffected by the change in erodent temperature from ambient to 40 0 C. 1.Ruff A W, Ives L K. Measurement of solid particle velocity in erosive wear. Wear 1975; 35 (1): 195-199. List of Materials used in the present work Matrix: EPOXY Fiber: Natural Fiber : Bamboo Particulate Fillers: Red Mud Copper Slag Alumina Silicon Carbide