Erosive Wear Study of PPLSF/Glass Fiber ReinforcedHybrid Laminates

This work is focused to examine the erosive performance of hybrid Palmyra palm leaf stalk fiber (PPLSF)/glass polyester laminate against solid particle bombardment. A hand lay-up method was adopted for the fabricating four piles of five distinct laminates with different stacking order glass and PPLSF layers. Amongst them, one group of pure PPLSF and pure E-glass laminates were fabricated. The hybrid laminates were exposed to high speed stream of solid sand particle at three distinct impact velocities (48, 70 and 82 m/s) and four different angles of impingement (30°, 45°, 60° and 90°). The effect of particle velocity, angle of impingement and stacking order on both wear rate and efficiency were highlighted. The experimental assessment reveals a significant improvement in erosive wear resistance properties due to hybridization of PPLSF with E-glass. Again, the laminates with PPLSF layer as skin and glass as core layer exhibited better erosive wear resistance properties than other types of laminates. Further, a maximum value of erosion at lower velocity (48 m/s) is also noticed at 45° impingement angle. However, at high velocity of impact 70 m/s and 82 m/s, the maximum rate of erosion has been shifted from 45° impact angle to 60° impact angle. The alternation of this semi-ductile character to semi-brittle character is evidenced by analyzing the experimental data. Further to justify the mode of erosion, the eroded surface samples were inspected by scanning electron microscope (SEM).