Thermo-mechanical and sliding wear behaviour of vinyl ester–cement by-pass dust particulate-filled homogenous and their functionally graded composites

In this article, particulate-filled cement by-pass dust and short Kevlar fibre have been utilised to produce homogenous and functionally graded vinyl ester composites. In this study, cement by-pass dust varies from 4 to 12 wt% whereas the Kevlar fibre is kept fixed (i.e. 10 wt%). The physical and mechanical properties like void content and hardness are found to increase with increase in filler content in case of functionally graded materials, whereas tensile strength, impact energy and flexural strength are found to deteriorate for both functionally graded materials and homogeneous composites. Similarly, sliding wear tests are performed over a range of sliding velocities (1.5–4.5 m/s), normal loads (10–25 N), filler contents (4–16 wt%), sliding distance (1–4 km) and abrasive grit size (18–48 µm) using pin on disc test rig. Wear characteristics and their significant factor are successfully analysed using statistics-based Taguchi experimental design and analysis of variance, respectively. Dynamic mechanical analysis is carried out for homogenous and functionally graded materials composites in order to investigate the overall flexibility and interaction of the constituents. Finally, surface morphology of the worn surfaces was studied with the help of scanning electron microscope.