EFFECT OF GRAPHITE FILLER CONTENT ON THE MECHANICAL AND WEAR PROPERTIES OF EPOXY MATRIX COMPOSITE

This work evaluates the effect of graphite filler on the mechanical and Tribological properties of Epoxy/Graphite composite. Composites containing 0, 0.1, 0.5 and 1% graphite microparticles were prepared by hand mixing resin and hardener with the graphite particles. The produced composites were subjected to microstructural, mechanical and tribological characterisation. Experimental results show that an increase in graphite filler content leads to an increase in elastic modulus for 0.1 and 0.5% graphite content before reducing. For the hardness values, an increase of 28% (64.6SHD) with respect to neat epoxy (50.36). Clear increase in hardness is observed with increase in graphite content. The impact strength of the composite is also found to increase with increase in filler content, with the highest impact value at 1% graphite content (8.75J). The specific wear rate of neat epoxy was 0.003086 ????????3 /Nm while the composite with 1% was 0 ????????3 /Nm. This study shows that the solid lubrication capabilities of graphite particles enables reduction in wear rate of the epoxy matrix composite as the specimen with 1% graphite had no physical wear tracks on its surface