Dry wear studies on glass-fibre reinforced epoxy composites

Continuous glass-fiber-reinforced epoxy composites were fabricated13; and their wear behavior was studied. A rapid drop in the wear loss occurred13; with an increase in the sliding speed for the pure epoxy resin while13; the reinforced sample exhibited a mild decrease, a flat region and then a rise.13; Optical microscopy examination indicates that the higher wear loss for the13; lt; composite at higher speeds could be due to loss of glass fibers. The variation13; in the coefficient of friction, fl, with load and sliding speed was studied.13; Both the epoxy resin and the composite show a marked dependence of Iu on13; load, which includes a peak. The pure epoxy resin showed no significant13; dependence of the coefficient of friction on sliding speed whereas the composite13; shows a peak value, thereby emphasizing the important role of the13; reinforcing fibers.13; 13