This document summarizes a project that studied the sliding wear behavior of glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin composites and optimized the material properties. E-glass fiber and unsaturated polyester resin composites were fabricated using hand lay-up. Tests were conducted to characterize wear resistance under varying fiber length, fiber content, and velocity. Taguchi experimental design and regression analysis identified fiber content as the most influential factor. Non-linear regression modeling validated an optimal relationship between wear resistance and the material properties.

1. GOVERNMENT COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF PRODUCTION ENGINEERING
SLIDING WEAR BEHAVIOUR OF GLASS
FIBER REINFORCED EPOXY RESIN
COMPOSITE AND OPTIMIZATION
PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS:
R.MITHILESH KUMAR(0715123)
NARESH KUMAR SENAPATI(0715125)
S.NELSON MANDELA(0715126)
M.PRADEEP RAJA(0715130)
N.SUBBIAH @ SURESH(0715147)
A.KAMALAKKANNAN(0715L03)
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:
Mr. S. SRINIVASA MOORTHY, APPE

2. SYNOPSIS
The present work includes the processing,
characterization and study of the sliding wear
behaviour of a e glass-epoxy composite.
The composite with varying fibre length of 1cm, 2cm
and 3cm along with different fibre content of 30wt%,
40wt% and 50wt % are used.
 By volume fraction method, the weight percentage of
fiber, unsaturated polyester resin is calculated, and the
polymer composite is fabricated by hand layup
method.

3. The experimental investigations are carried out to
investigate properties of unsaturated polyester
composites under the wear test.
Then Taguchi’s experimental design approach is
carried out to make a parametric analysis of sliding
wear behaviour.
The systematic experimentation leads to
determination of material variables that
predominantly influence the wear rate.
 The regressive analysis is carried out to determine
the non-linear analysis for the prediction of the
optimized model.

4. INTRODUCTION
 Composite materials are engineering materials made
from two or more constituent materials that remain
separate and distinct on a macroscopic level while
forming a single component.
 There are two categories of constituent materials: matrix
and reinforcement. At least one portion of each type is
required.
 The matrix material surrounds and supports the
reinforcement materials by maintaining their relative
positions.
 The reinforcements impart their special mechanical and
physical properties to enhance the matrix properties.

5. MATERIALS USED FOR
FABRICATION OF COMPOSITES
FIBER :FIBER : E GLASS FIBREE GLASS FIBRE ((ALUMINO-ALUMINO-
BOROSILICATE GLASS WITH LESS THANBOROSILICATE GLASS WITH LESS THAN 11 WT%WT%
ALKALI OXIDES, MAINLY USED FOR GLASS-ALKALI OXIDES, MAINLY USED FOR GLASS-
REINFORCED PLASTICS )REINFORCED PLASTICS )
RESIN :RESIN :UNSATURATEDUNSATURATED
POLYESTER RESINPOLYESTER RESIN
ACCELERATOR :ACCELERATOR : ETHYL METHYLETHYL METHYL
KETONEKETONE
CATALYST :CATALYST : COBALT NAPHTHENATECOBALT NAPHTHENATE

6. METHODOLOGY
Collection of E-glass fiber, resin and accelerator.
Mould preparation.
Mixing the Unsaturated polyester resin and
accelerator with a ratio of 1:1.5.
Preparation of the specimen.
Conducting wear test on specimen.
Interpretation of wear test results using Taguchi and
Regression model analysis.

7. COMPOSITION
S .NO FIBRE
LENGTH
(cm)
FIBRE
CONTENT
(wt %)
RESIN
(wt %)
C1 1 30 70
C2 2 40 60
C3 3 50 50

8. COMBINATIONS FABRICATED
Sl.No FIBRE LENGTH FIBRE CONTENT RESIN
1 1 30 70
2 1 40 60
3 1 50 50
4 2 30 70
5 3 30 70
6 2 40 60
7 3 40 60
8 2 50 50
9 3 50 50

9. FABRICATION
HAND LAY-UP OPERATION:
Pattern preparation.
Weighing of fibre, resin are made as per calculations.
Mixture of (resin + catalyst + accelerator) is made.
Wax coating .
The fibers are laid in the pattern and the mixture is applied
for bonding.
After fabrication the composite material is left for curing
for 24 hours.
After curing process, cutting is done as per required
dimensions.

10. PATTERN WITH WAX COATING

11. MATERIAL LEFT FOR CURING

12. FABRICATED PIECE AFTER CUTTING TO REQUIRED
DIMENSIONS

13. WEAR TEST
Wear is erosion or sideways displacement of material
from its derivative and original position on a solid
surface performed by the action of another surface.
 The definition of wear may include loss of dimension
from plastic deformation if it is originated at the
interface between two sliding surfaces.
The wear test is being conducted on the specimens
prepared by the hand lay-up method

14. WEAR TESTING MACHINE
The machine used for conducting the wear test is
DUCOM TRIBOMETER. The DUCOM TRIBOMETER
uses a pin-on-disk system to measure wear.
The unit consists of a gimbaled arm to which the pin
is attached, a fixture which accommodates discs upto
165mm in diameter and 8mm thick, an electronic
force sensor for measuring the friction force, and a
computer software (WINDUCOM) for displaying the
parameters, printing, or storing data for analysis.

15. The motor driven turn table produces upto 2000rpm.
Wear is quantified by measuring the wear groove with
a profilometer and measuring the amount of material
removed.

16. FEATURES AND SPECIFICATION
PARAMETER MINIMUM MAXIMUM UNIT
PIN SIZE 3 12 mm
DISC SIZE 165*8 mm thick mm
SLIDING SPEED 0.05 10 m/s
DISC ROTATION 200 2000 rpm
NORMAL LOAD 0 200 N
FRICTIONAL FORCE 0 200 N
WEAR 0 2 mm
TRACK RADIUS TO BE SET MANUALLY mm

17. WEAR TESTING MACHINE

19. TESTING PROCEDURE
The specimen to be tested is placed on the turn table
fixture. The test variables sliding velocity, normal
load, distance and time duration are specified.
The normal load is applied to the pin using a system
of weights. Rotating the turntable while applying this
force to the pin includes sliding wear as well as
friction force.

20. TEST RESULTS
APPLIED
FORCE FIBER CONTENT VELOCITY WEAR RATE
20 30 1
0.00519
20 40 3
0.01745
20 50 5
0.003638
30 30 3
0.004299
30 40 5
0.003768
30 50 1
0.005574
40 30 5
0.00797
40 40 1
0.02955
40 50 3
0.004256

21. TAGUCHI METHOD
Taguchi defines the quality of a product, in terms of
the loss imparted by the product to the society from
the time the product shipped to the customer.
Taguchi method uses a special design of orthogonal
arrays to study the entire parameter space with a
small number of experiments only.
 The experimental results are then transformed into a
signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio.

22. STEPS INVOLVED IN TAGUCHI
METHOD
Determination of the number of levels for the design.
Selection of the appropriate orthogonal array and
assignment of design parameters to the orthogonal array.
Conducting of the experiments based on the arrangement
ofthe orthogonal array.
Analysis of the experimental results using the S/N and
ANOVA analyses.
Selection of the optimal levels of design parameters.

23. CATEGORIES OF QUALITY
CHARACTERISTIC
Normal is best
Smaller is better
Larger is better
For wear test smaller the better quality characteristic
is preferred for analysis.
Smaller the better characteristic equation:
 S/N= −10 log (1/n) (∑y2
)

24. ORTHOGONAL ARRAY
An orthogonal array is a type of experiment where the
columns for the independent variables are orthogonal to one
another.

25. LEVELS AND FACTORS
Code Factor
Levels
1 2 3
A Applied force in N 20 30 40
B Fiber content in wt% 30 40 50
C Velocity in m/s 1 3 5

26. L9 ORTHOGONAL ARRAY AND VALUES
Trial Levels
1 2 3
Wear rate
1 20 30 1
0.00519
2 20 40 3
0.01745
3 20 50 5
0.003638
4 30 30 3
0.004299
5 30 40 5
0.003768
6 30 50 1
0.005574
7 40 30 5
0.00797
8 40 40 1
0.02955
9
40 50 3
0.004256

27. S-N RESPONSE FOR WEAR
Mean S/N ratio
Parameter Level1 Level 2 Level 3 Delta Rank
Applied
Force
45.000 38.077 47.094 124.632 3
Fibre
content (wt
%)
43.215
46.962
39.994
133.499
1
Velocity
40.454
43.306
46.411
128.345 2
The following table shows the signal to noise
response for wear

28. ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE
The purpose of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) is to
investigate the design parameters significantly affect
the quality characteristic of a product or process.
ANOVA can be useful for determining influence of
any given input parameter from a series of
experimental results by design of experiments for
machining process and it can be used to interpret
experimental data.

29. ANOVA TABLE
Symbol
Cutting
Parameter D.O.F S.S. M.S. F Contribution
1 AF 2 72.981 36.491 1.064 22.218
2 FC 2 133.618 66.809 1.947 40.678
3 V 2 53.260 26.630 0.776 16.214
Error 2 68.622 34.311 20.891
Total 8 328.482 164.241 100.000

30. FACTORS INFLUENCING WEAR

31. RESULTS FROM TAGUCHI
ANALYSIS
From the Taguchi result fibre content is most
significant factor for wear.
The results of ANOVA revealed that fibre content is
the main parameter which has greater influence on
wear.
 The wear resistance increases with the increase of
fibre content.

32. REGRESSION MODELLING AND
ANALYSIS
The statistical tool, regression analysis helps to
estimate (predict) the value of one variable from the
given value of another.
Regression Models
Regression models involve the following variables:
Unknown parameters, β
Independent variables, X
Dependent variables, Y

33. TYPES OF REGRESSION
Linear Regression
Non-linear Regression
Non-Linear Regression Analysis
The model function is not linear in the parameters
the sum of squares must be minimized by an iterative
procedure. Most of the researchers use the Nonlinear
regression models in various applications.

34. REGRESSION MODEL RESULTS
Nonlinear Regression Summary Statistics Dependent Variable WR
Source DF Sum of Squares Mean Square
Regression 4 .09187 .02297
Residual 5 1.532781E-03 3.065562E-04
Uncorrected Total 9 .09340
(Corrected Total) 8 .07230
R squared = 1 - Residual SS / Corrected SS = 0.97880
Asymptotic 95 %
Asymptotic Confidence Interval
Parameter Estimate Std. Error Lower Upper
K 8.30330E-13 9.41564E-12 -2.33733E-11 2.50340E-11
X -2.046056436 .938599113 -4.458802268 .366689396
Y 7.744994220 2.452698704 1.440131484 14.049856957
Z 1.513272257 866626694 -.714462582 3.741007096

35. REGRESSION MODEL RESULTS
It is seen that the value of R square is 0.97880,
which ensures that the generated non-linear
mathematical model for wear resistance is optimal.

36. CONCLUSION
The unsaturated composite of e-glass fiber and epoxy
resin is fabricated using the hand lay-up technique.
The weight percentage of different compositions is
calculated by volume fraction method.
The wear resisting property is characterized by
conducting wear test on Ducom Tribometer.
Applied force, fiber content and velocity are
influencing factors. It is observed that the wear
resistance increases with increase in fiber content.

37. Taguchi’s analysis is carried out to find out the most
influencing factor and optimization is done by
considering the values from signal to noise ratio
relationship, analysis of variance.
 Regression modelling and analysis is also carried out
to validate the wear test results.
By using the non-linear regression analysis method
iterations are carried out and the final result ensures
the optimization.

38. THANK YOU