Study of Friction and Wear Properties of ABS/Kaolin Polymer Composites Using Grey Relational Technique

The tribological properties of friction coefficient and specific wear rate of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) polymer filled with micron-sized kaolin powder are studied in this paper. The tribological tests are carried out for a constant time of 300 seconds in dry condition on multi-tribotester (block-on-roller configuration) based on Taguchi L27 orthogonal array (OA). Filler content, normal load and sliding speed are considered as the design parameter. Using grey relational analysis, multi response optimization problem is converted into single response optimization problem and the optimum combination of design parameters is found as 5 wt % of filler content, 35 N of normal load and 120 rpm of sliding speed. A confirmation test is carried out to validate the optimized result and the result shows that the grey relational grade is increased about 59.39% from initial to optimum parameter conditions. From ANOVA, it is seen filler content is the most significant factor followed by normal load and sliding speed. Finally, SEM images are investigated to identify the wear mechanism.