Effect of Sliding Distance on Tribological Behavior of Pongamia Oil Cake-Filled Basalt Epoxy Composites

In this paper, evaluation of the effects of sliding distance and rubbing and wear action on basalt epoxy composites added with Pongamia oil cake by using the steel disk on the wear testing machine has been presented. The emphasis is given to wear rate and co-efficient of friction as a function of sliding distance (2000–10,000). Fillers such as Pongamia-filled basalt epoxy composites were fabricated using vacuum-assisted resin transfer technique. The results indicate that a POC-filled basalt epoxy specimen indicates superior wear characteristics at all conditions. It was found that wear loss is higher with higher the sliding distance and wear rate reduced with higher sliding distance. It is also found that 45% wear rate improvement for 3 wt% POC, 6 wt% POC-filled B-E composites compared to unfilled composites. The operating wear mechanism has been studied using the scanning electron microscope. The SEM images indicate more damage to the matrix and neat B-E samples compared to POC-added specimen.