Investigation of mechanical and abrasive wear behavior of blast furnace slag‐filled needle‐punched nonwoven viscose fabric epoxy hybrid composites

In this work, a new class of hybrid composites consisting of needle‐punched nonwoven viscose fabric reinforced epoxy filled with different weight proportions (0, 5, 10, and 15 wt%) of blast furnace slag (BFS) are prepared. The mechanical study of these composites indicated that hardness, impact strength are increased with increase in filler wt% whereas the properties like tensile, flexural and inter‐laminar shear strength are reduced beyond 10 wt% of filler loading. Abrasive wear behavior of these composites is investigated by slurry abrasion test rig (ASTM G105). The optimum parametric combination is determined for minimum wear rate and further validated through confirmation experiment as per Taguchi experimental design. Slurry abrasion test results revealed that wear resistance of viscose fabric/epoxy composites has been improved with the inclusion of BFS particulate fillers. The morphological study of abraded surfaces examined by scanning electron microscopy and the possible wear mechanisms responsible for wear are discussed. POLYM. COMPOS., 40:2335–2345, 2019.