Wear performance enhancement in glass‐epoxy composites with clamshell and cenosphere fillers for industrial application

This research explores the potential of utilizing marine waste, specifically clamshells, and industrial waste in the form of cenospheres to create a novel class of hybrid glass epoxy composite materials. To assess their performance, a dry abrasion test was conducted on these composites, considering factors such as filler content (ranging from 0 wt.‐% to 20 wt.‐% (w filler )), applied load (from 70.1 N to 146.7 N), sliding velocity (between 1.5 m/s and 2.1 m/s), and sliding distance (ranging from 75 m to 125 m) as the four major process parameters. The wear experiments followed the Taguchi methodology and employed an L27 orthogonal array to determine the optimal process parameters for minimizing wear in the composite materials. The introduction of fillers into the glass epoxy composites significantly improved their resistance to dry abrasion. Notably, the applied load emerged as the most influential factor affecting abrasive wear in these composites. For composites containing w filler = 10 wt.‐%, cenosphere‐filled composites and clamshells‐filled composites exhibited superior wear resistance. Subsequently, the abraded surfaces of the composites were examined under a scanning electron microscope, and the potential mechanisms of abrasion were comprehensively analysed and presented.