Tribological Performance of Acrylic Acid Modified Short Rattan Fibre Reinforced Epoxy Composite

In the present investigation, acrylic acid treated short rattan fibre reinforced epoxy (RF/Epoxy) composite was fabricated by taking various weight percentages (i.e. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 wt%) of fibres using hand layup technique. Different mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural, and impact strength were investigated. By regression analysis it was found that 18 wt% of acrylic acid treated rattan fibre reinforcement (optimum fiber loading) gave 21.17%, 32.74% and 40.10% increase in above properties in comparison to untreated one. The tribological performances such as specific wear rate, friction coefficient and weight loss were analysed in terms of speed, load and sliding distance under multipass two body abrasion condition. It was observed that tribological performance was also better at optimum fibre loading similar to mechanical properties. The microstructure of worn-out surface of the composite was studied with the help of scanning electron microscope (SEM) and was found that with increasing sliding velocity, the surface deterioration and matrix breakage become predominant reducing the composite's wear resistance.