Two-body abrasive behavior of areca sheath fibre reinforced polyvinyl alcohol composites

Tribological properties of randomly oriented benzyl chloride modified short areca sheath (AS) fibre reinforced polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) composites have been studied. The test specimens are prepared using various weights of fibres (0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 %) by injection molding process. Fibre content of 27 wt% is found to have better tensile strength, as determined by regression analysis. The tribological behavior under multipass abrasion condition and the impacts of applied load & sliding distance on specific wear rate and weight loss have also been investigated. It is found that 27 wt% of fibre loading shows better resistance to wear similar to tensile strength. Scanning electron microscopy is used to capture the images of wear surface at optimum fibre loading to have an idea about the wear mechanism of the composite.