Thermal and Sliding Wear Properties of Wood Waste-Filled Poly(Lactic Acid) Biocomposites

Tej Singh; Amar Patnaik; Lalit Ranakoti; Gábor Dogossy; László Lendvai

doi:10.3390/polym14112230

Thermal and Sliding Wear Properties of Wood Waste-Filled Poly(Lactic Acid) Biocomposites

Polymers (Basel). 2022 May 30;14(11):2230. doi: 10.3390/polym14112230.

Authors

Tej Singh¹, Amar Patnaik², Lalit Ranakoti³, Gábor Dogossy⁴, László Lendvai⁴

Affiliations

¹ Savaria Institute of Technology, Faculty of Informatics, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, 9700 Szombathely, Hungary.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur 302017, Rajasthan, India.
³ Mechanical Engineering Department, Graphic Era (Deemed to be University), Dehradun 248002, Uttarakhand, India.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Széchenyi István University, 9026 Győr, Hungary.

Abstract

In our study, the effects of wood waste content (0, 2.5, 5, 7.5, and 10 wt.%) on thermal and dry sliding wear properties of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) biocomposites were investigated. The wear of developed composites was examined under dry contact conditions at different operating parameters, such as sliding velocity (1 m/s, 2 m/s, and 3 m/s) and normal load (10 N, 20 N, and 30 N) at a fixed sliding distance of 2000 m. Thermogravimetric analysis demonstrated that the inclusion of wood waste decreased the thermal stability of PLA biocomposites. The experimental results indicate that wear of biocomposites increased with a rise in load and sliding velocity. There was a 26-38% reduction in wear compared with pure PLA when 2.5 wt.% wood waste was added to composites. The Taguchi method with L₂₅ orthogonal array was used to analyze the sliding wear behavior of the developed biocomposites. The results indicate that the wood waste content with 46.82% contribution emerged as the most crucial parameter affecting the wear of PLA biocomposites. The worn surfaces of the biocomposites were examined by scanning electron microscopy to study possible wear mechanisms and correlate them with the obtained wear results.

Keywords: biocomposite; microscopy; poly(lactic acid); sliding wear; wood waste.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary from the National Research, Development, and Innovation Fund, financed under the TKP2021-NKTA funding scheme, grant number TKP2021-NKTA-48. L. Lendvai is grateful for the support of the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.