Adhesive Wear and Frictional Performance of Banana Fibre Reinforced Epoxy (BaFRE) Composite

This current work is an attempt to investigate the tribological performance of banana fibre-reinforced epoxy (BaFRE) composite in dry contact conditions. The test is conducted on a wear test rig of type Block on Ring (BOR) based on ASTM G77, G137-95 standard. Different applied normal loads (5–30 N) subjected to a stainless steel counterface at different sliding speeds (1.7–3.96 m/s) and fixed sliding distance of 6.72 km were set as the experimental parameters. The test was conducted using neat epoxy (NE) as the control tests’ specimen while BaFRE composite was in anti-parallel (AP) and parallel (P) fibre strips orientation (O). The specific wear rate (Ws), friction coefficient, temperature variation and surface roughness (RA) of the NE and BaFRE composite in AP-O and P-O were investigated. The worn surface morphology of the test samples was examined under a high-resolution metallurgy microscope. The outcome of the work revealed that AP-O exhibited excellent wear performance when compared to P-O and NE. Moreover, the lowest friction coefficient of 0.0121 is achieved when AP-O is subjected to 30 N of applied load and 3.96 m/s of sliding velocity. BaFRE composite in AP-O demonstrated the lowest range of temperature variation when it was subjected to 30 N at 3.96 m/s of counterface sliding velocity. Due to the high shear resistance at the rubbing zone incurred by the AP-O test specimen and counterface, the RA values were remarkably high for the test specimen (i.e., 1.122 µm) and the counterface wear track zone (0.166 µm) as compared to the P-O and NE test samples. The predominant wear mechanism for the AP-O test specimen was plastic deformation, detached fibre, micro crack, minor fibre debonding and micro ploughing. In conclusion, there are improvements in terms of wear and friction performance of the composite when banana fibres are used as a reinforced element in epoxy resin. The improvement in Ws and friction coefficient for the AP test specimen was 29.4% and 48.6%, respectively, as compared to NE at 30 N of applied load, 6.72 km of sliding distance and 2.83 m/s of sliding speed.