Wear behavior of sisal fiber reinforced polyester composites with calcium carbonate and kaolin fillers for structural panel applications

Abstract This study investigates the mechanical and wear behavior of sisal fiber reinforced polyester composites containing 5 wt.% calcium carbonate (SFCC) and 5 wt.% kaolin (SFKL) fillers. Composites were fabricated via hand lay-up with 30 wt.% alkali-treated sisal fibers. Mechanical testing revealed that SFCC exhibited a tensile strength of 118 MPa, a flexural strength of 165 MPa, an impact strength of 9.8 kJ m −2 , and a Rockwell hardness of 92 HRM, whereas SFKL showed superior performance with a tensile strength of 124 MPa, a flexural strength of 172 MPa, an impact strength of 10.4 kJ m −2 , and a hardness of 94 HRM. Wear tests using a pin-on-disk tribometer under varying load, sliding distance, and velocity, analyzed via Taguchi L9 orthogonal arrays and analysis of variance, indicated that applied load is the most dominant factor (SFCC: 76.63 %; SFKL: 76.24 %), followed by sliding distance, while sliding velocity had negligible effect. Specific wear rates increased sharply with applied load, ranging from 0.0633 to 0.2233 for SFCC and from 0.0557 to 0.195 for SFKL. Scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed smoother worn surfaces with shallow grooves and limited fiber pull-out in SFKL compared to SFCC. Overall, kaolin-filled sisal fiber composites exhibited superior mechanical and tribological performance, making them promising for structural panel applications.