Study on mechanical and tribological characteristics of layered functionally graded polymer composite materials
Vasavi Boggarapu, L. Ruthik, Dheeraj Kumar Gara, Shakuntala Ojha, S.C. Jain, Raghavendra Gujjala, Aswani Kumar Bandaru, I. Ramu
Abstract
It is apparent that well-designed functionally graded materials (FGMs) exhibit smooth transition in properties. In this paper, polymer based functionally graded composite materials (FGCMs) were developed in combination with copper (Cu) particles and epoxy. A novel stepped layer configuration through a curing-phase approach at each layer in three different curing conditions (C1, C2, C3) have been processed. A significant enhancement in mechanical strength and erosion resistance was observed at higher curing temperatures (60°C) for sample C3. The results indicated tensile and compressive strengths of C3 enhanced by 40.20%, 17.48% and 20.18%, 9.74% compared to C1 and C2, respectively. Furthermore, when the FGM is loaded from top to bottom (T-B), there is an enhancement in flexural strength of C3 by 7.88% when compared to bottom to top (B-T) loading. In addition, the erosion wear of C3 was found to be lowest of all the samples.