Utilization of Flyash as Filler Material in Hybrid Polyester Composites for Improved Thermo-Mechanical and Erosion Wear Behavior

The present work was carried out for the utilization of major quantities of flyash as filler material in the short fiber reinforced polyester resin composites in various engineering and structural applications. The incorporation of flyash modifies the hardness, tensile, flexural, impact and damping behavior of the composites. It is observed that hardness, flexural modulus and impact strength of flyash filled composites increases with increase in the flyash filler contents. Whereas, with the addition of flyash contents it is observed that there is decrease in tensile strength and flexural strength. But beyond the 10 wt.-% flyash filler addition in the composite the flexural strength increases. At the end, the erosion wear behavior of all the composites has been studied by Taguchi experimental design. It is found that unfilled glass polyester composite suffers greater erosion loss as compare to particulate filled glass polyester composites. The eroded surface morphology is examined by SEM and the related erosion wear mechanism is discussed in detail.