Volume 10 Issue 1 ( March 2023 )

Pages_63-77

Investigation of the Mechanical and Wear Properties of Epoxy Resin Composite (ERCs) Made With Nano Particle TiO2 and Cotton Fiber Reinforcement

Naveen Kumar Yadav, Nitesh Singh Rajput, Shweta kulshreshtha, Manoj Kumar Gupta

[ABSTRACT ]

Epoxy composites reinforced with cotton fibers and incorporating TiO2 nanoparticles were studied at room temperature. The mechanical behavior of 0.5% to 2% TiO2 hybrid composites with cotton fiber fabric, ranging from single to multi-layer, was examined. The Taguchi method was used to improve the mechanical and wear attributes of the hybrid composites. The experiments were conducted using an L16 array, and mechanical tests were performed using an L16 orthogonal array to evaluate the impact of TiO2 (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%), cotton fiber fabric (1, 2, 3, 4 layers), and epoxy resin. Load in kilograms (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5) and speed in RPM (200, 250, 300, 350) were specified as control parameters for the wear testing of ERCs. The wear test rotation distance was 200 meters. The addition of nanoparticles to ERCs reinforced with cotton fibers significantly decreased the wear rate, with hybrid composites containing 2% TiO2 nanoparticles exhibiting the lowest wear rate. Increasing the percentage of nanoparticles and cotton fiber reinforcement improved the mechanical strength of the ERCs. According to the results of the ANOVA analysis, load was the factor that most significantly influenced the wear rate, followed by speed and finally the weight percentage of nanoparticles. The ANOVA results clearly showed that TiO2 nanoparticles had the largest influence on the wear rate, with a contribution of 65.43%. The second most significant factor was the rotation of the disk, with a contribution of 23.91%. Although cotton fiber fabric had the least significant impact on the wear rate, the load factor still contributed 4.34% to the total.

Keywords: Hybrid composite, nano particle, cotton cloth reinforcement, Taguchi method, ANN, machine learning, TiO2