Sliding Wear Behavior of Epoxy/MWCNT‐Nanoclay Hybrid Composites: An Experimental Assessment

ABSTRACT In this investigation, the sliding wear analysis of Epoxy/MWCNT, Epoxy/Nanoclay, and Epoxy/MWCNT‐Nanoclay composites have been determined. Different wt.% of MWCNT and Nanoclay is embedded into epoxy resin for the formulation of Epoxy/MWCNT, Epoxy/Nanoclay, and Epoxy/MWCNT/Nanoclay composite with the use of homogenizer and ultrasonic Probe sonicator to disperse nanoparticle completely into the resin. Four different controlling factors, i.e., filler content, sliding distance, RPM, and normal load were considered for sliding wear analysis and relation between these factors. The output (specific wear rate and coefficient of friction) were also generated through Taguchi design of experiments (DoE) and analysis of variance (ANoVA) methods for the validation. Controlling variable like normal load (10, 20, 30, and 40 N), sliding distance (1000, 1500, 2000, and 2500 m), and RPM (300, 400, 500, and 600) had selected to analyze the wear and friction. The results had shown that the specific wear rate and coefficient of friction were lower with adding of MWCNT and Nanoclay into the epoxy resin. Epoxy/MWCNT‐Nanoclay had shown lower weight loss as compare to Epoxy/Nanoclay and Epoxy/MWCNT composites. The optimum control variables were investigated, and found that Epoxy/MWCNT‐Nanoclay, having 0.5 wt.% of MWCNT and 4 wt.% of nanoclay had shown lower specific wear rate and low coefficient of friction.