Wear Behavior of Coir Reinforced Treated and Untreated Hybrid Composites

The aim of this investigation is to study the three-body abrasive wear behavior of different weight percentage (wt%) filled organo-modified montmorillonite (oMMT) with constant wt% of treated and untreated coir sheath (CS) in unsaturated polyester (USP) resin. There-body abrasive wear of the hybrid composites were studied under different filler loading, treatment of the coir sheath, and abrading distance. The results of the abrasive wear test revealed that the wear volume increases with increase in abrading distance and specific wear rate is high for the untreated composites (UTCs) compared to alkali treated composites (ATCs) and silane treated composites (STCs). STCs with 1 wt% oMMT-filled USP hybrid composite exhibited better abrasive wear resistance compared to UTCs and ATCs. Different wear mechanisms were observed on the worn surfaces of the composites, including pitting, micro- and/or macro- cracks, as well as crack propagation of the matrix in the transverse direction.