Tribo-Mechanical Behavior of Hybrid Polymer Composite

Polymers and their composites form an important class of tribo-engineering materials, which are invariably used for the manufacture of mechanical components, where wear performance is a key parameter. The possible utilization of iron mine waste (Over burden and topsoil aggregate) for developing a new class of hybrid polymer composites has been strategized in this book. The composites were fabricated using hand-layup process by reinforcing woven glass fibers in the epoxy polymer filled with different weight proportions of iron-mud. Wear experiments (Abrasion and Erosion wear) were conducted according to Box-Behnken design approach as per ASTM standards under controlled laboratory conditions. Also, a prediction tool based on artificial neural network was implemented to investigate the tribological properties of the composites and the results were compared with the experimental ones. A metaheuristic approach like particle swarm optimization was also used to reveal the minimum wear at optimal parametric combination. Finally, the morphology of the worn surfaces was examined by using scanning electron microscopy and the possible wear mechanisms were critically examined and presented.