Erosive wear studies of epoxy-based composites at normal incidence

Erosive wear resistance has been evaluated for neat epoxy, unidirectional glass and carbon fibre reinforced epoxy composites and bi-directional E-glass fabric reinforced epoxy composite at normal incidence. Bi-directional glass fibre reinforced epoxy composite showed better erosive wear resistance than unidirectional fibre reinforced composites. This is due to the arrangement of glass fibres in bi-direction and is more helpful in absorbing considerable amount of impact energy during the fracture process than unidirectional composites. Erosion behaviour of these composites has been ascertained by correlating steady-state erosion with impingement angle, impact velocity and by plotting erosion efficiency (η) versus hardness map. It is broadly confirmed that semi-ductile erosion behaviour is operative in epoxy and its composites. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies have been conducted to understand the wear mechanisms involved during the material removal process.