The wear resistance of glass fibre reinforced epoxy composites

Polymers are usually characterized by low moduli and strength. Epoxy, as a thermoset material, has a low wear resistance. Additions of glass fibres improve the elastic modulus and tensile strength and can improve the wear resistance. The composites were prepared by pultrusion of the glass fibres after saturation of epoxy. The fibre volume fraction was varied up to 50%. Tensile and wear tests were carried out to examine the improvement in the composite properties. A small deviation of the tensile strength and the elastic modulus from the calculated values using the rule of mixture was observed due to the existence of porosities. The wear resistance increases with increasing the sliding velocity, with decreasing the applied contact pressure and with selecting the most favourable glass fibre volume fraction.