Physico-mechanical and Taguchi-designed sliding wear properties of Himalayan agave fiber reinforced polyester composite

This research paper addresses the experimental investigation on physico-mechanical and Taguchi-designed sliding wear properties of novel Himalayan agave fiber (fiber's sizes of 3 mm, 5 mm, 7 mm and fiber's loading of 5 wt.%, 7 wt.% and 9 wt.%) reinforced polyester composites. The tensile and impact strength were observed to increase with increase in fiber's size and loading delivering maximum tensile of 25.43 MPa and impact strength of 45.55 J/m2 at fiber's size and loading of 7 mm and 9 wt.% respectively. The maximum flexural strength (47.02 MPa) and hardness (48.01 Hv) were achieved with polyester composites having 7 wt.% fiber loading at different fiber's size of 7 mm and 5 mm respectively. The sliding wear rate of composites was studied at different sliding velocity (1.5–4.5 m/s), fiber's size (0–7 mm), normal load (10–25 N), and sliding distance (500–2000 m) using Taguchi technique. The study demonstrated that the sliding velocity, fiber's size, sliding distance and normal load are the significant control parameters in descending order affecting the sliding wear rate. Keywords: Natural fiber, Physical properties, Mechanical properties, Sliding wear properties: Taguchi analysis