THE EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AND STATISTICAL EVALUATION OF THE WEAR AND HARDNESS OF EPOXY REINFORCED WITH NATURAL MATERIALS

Abstract

This work focuses on study the effect of Date Seeds (DS) and Olive Seeds (OS) on wear rate and hardness property of epoxy resin. Olive and dates seeds were added to epoxy at weight fraction (0, 8, 13, &18wt%) with grain size (300, 450 & 600µm). The composite specimens were prepared by Hand-Lay up technique and cut according to standard test. The results show that the hardness of composites increases with weight fraction of powder increase and the wear rate decreases with increasing weight fraction of powder. Also it is found that the higher value of hardness and wear resistance were at (% =18 wt%) with grain size (300µm) for specimens reinforced with olive seeds. The mathematical model results show that the weight fraction of powder have higher effect than particle size on properties.