Investigation of wear strength of blast furnace slag blended polymer materials

Having symmetrical and balanced material properties, polymer matrix composites are increasingly becoming popular due to easiness of construction and are use in the production of aerospace and automotive structures. In the study, we developed polymer composites based on epoxy resins, containing up to 40 wt.% of blast furnace slag and determined their pin-on-disc dynamic friction, wear, Shore hardness and surface roughness values. Wear tests were performed using a pin-on-disc under dry friction conditions, at the loads of 5, 10, 15 and 30 N, using slip velocity of 0.3 m/s and along distance of 500 m. The hardness and wear resistance values increased with the increase in the content of blast furnace slag. Showing the relationship between wear rate and hardness, an equation with parameters dependent on load was provided. There was an increase in the dynamic friction with an increase in the surface roughness. In addition, dynamic friction was an increasing function of the wear rate. The wear surfaces of the polymer composites were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. It was observed that the wear rate of the epoxy composites and pure epoxy samples ranged from 19.85 to 171.42 mm /N m. 3TÜBİTAK / 114M15