Wear and frictional study of MWCNT doped glass fiber reinforced polymer composite under different sliding conditions

Glass fiber reinforced polymer composites are a proven and successful alternative that have numerous advantage over traditional reinforcement method, giving material a longer service life. In this paper experimental investigation is done on GFRP/epoxy doped with 3 wt % of MWCNTs (multi-walled carbon nano tube, diameter of order nanometer). The aim of this research is to evaluate the feasibility of GFRP doped with MWCNT under different sliding conditions (a) dry (b) lubricated at three different loading conditions and sliding speeds. The sample was prepared by hand layup technique followed by vaccum bagging. The experiment was performed on a pin on disc type tribometer (TR-20, made by DUCOM) with a steel disc of HRC-60 acting as the counterface. Experiment shows that the wear rate increases with increasing in normal load. It was also observed that the wear rate and the coefficient of friction is minimum in lubricating conditions and maximum in dry environment. Morphology was examined with the help of FESEM analysis of MWCNT doped GFRP. (paper)