Experimental Investigation of Wear Properties and Nano Clustering Simulation of Nano Alumina Epoxy Composite

Zainab Fadhel Mahdia, Musaddiq Abdil Khaliq Maliha mosadeq007 @yahoo.com

Abstract: Wear and hardness of Nano composite was investigated in the current research experimentally and
theoretically. For experimental approach laboratory prepared samples for wear test were tested for different weight ratios. Nano filler Clustering weaken wear resistance of the Nano composite. A Particle Swarm Optimization technique program was built with MATLAB to predict the clustering using the one of the collected experimental data of one sample of the system in study as information data base. The program use free energy as an objective function. Comparing the experimental results of wear with the experimental program gives a good convergence.

Keywords: Wear, Nano composite, Nano aggregation, PSO Introduction

The use of composite materials as a tribological solution increased in the recent decades. For their properties .many researches study the tribological behaviour of composite materials and Nano composite. The problem of Nano composite materials in general is the clustering and aggregation of the filler with small amount of weight ration. For example, for polymer matrix base composite the weight of Nano filler to be add experimentally is not exceed 5 % in the best cases. Quantum confinement needed to improve the properties, so for more small size of Nano materials the results will be better, but the aggregation and clustering will exacerbate. Molecular Kinetic Theory of Friction Molecular Kinetic concept of external friction of polymer materials were by the theory of BartneveSchallamach, so he obtained a theoretical relation of friction force to sliding velocity and temperatureOn polymer surface, there are chain segments that jump in a disorderly manner from on junction (adhesive point) to another. A direct relationship exists between the phenomena of friction and wear. This relationship is already discernible in the deflection of the energy criterion of wear and in the role of real contact area in the specific intensity of wear. The real contact area can be expressed for a wide range of pressures by the adaptive Baetenev-Lavrentev exponential equation .. (1) The coefficient of energy wear resistance (Bw) is equal to Where .. (2) Where f =F/S, the specific friction force is proportional to the specific real contact area f = C; consequently (3) is the mean jump distance between adjacent bonds in a segment in equilibrium on the contact surface. Sr is real contact area (8) The above equation shows that the coefficient Bwis proportional to the friction constant (i.e., on the specific actual (real) friction force) and does not depend upon pressure. This means that the relation of Bw to pressure is determined entirely by the relation of to pressure (4) is scaling factor (5) Where is the roughness coefficient E is youngs modulus. Experiments demonstrates that o<< 1, and assume that C=Cf gives

(6) (7) Where H is hardness of the softer of the two contacting surfaces. Cfis friction constant

 (9) is asperity radius is standard deviation of asperity height distribution is separation between asperities is surface density of asperities is normal contact area

something as simple as ice (reactants) turning to liquid water (products), the nuclear reactions taking place in the interior of stars, or elementary particle reactions in the early universe. No matter what the process, the direction of spontaneous change (at constant temperature and pressure) is always in the direction of decreasing free energy. The free energy of a cluster formation follows the equilibrium between forces of atomic cohesion in the condensate phase and the energy barrier caused by forces of a surface tension. In terms of the nucleus radius r. this Gibbs free energy variation can be expressed as: (11)

Thermodynamically Point of View of Nano composite Many Previous studies are shown that the less of volume fraction (in some Nano composite literature so called wetting percentage. According to composite terminology it is not quite right use) the better the distribution control, so, Nano reinforcement that mixed with resin show a high clustering behavior when it be more than 15% for sophisticated preparing methods. The physical govern criterion of this process is the free energy. All batteries depend on some physiochemical reaction of the form reactants products For the generation of electricity or on the reverse reaction as the battery is recharged. The change in free energy (G) for a reaction could be determined by measuring directly the amount of electrical work that the battery could do and then using the equation Wmax = G. However, the power of thermodynamics is that G can be calculated without having to build every possible battery and measure its performance. If the Gibbs free energies of the individual substances making up a battery are known, then the total free energies of the reactants can be subtracted from the total free energies of the products in order to find the change in Gibbs free energy for the reaction, G = Gproducts Greactants. (10)

Where is combination energy is particle diameter(2*radius of one particle)

Particle Swarm optimization PSO was formulated by Edward and Kennedy in 1995. The thought process behind the algorithm was inspired by the social behavior of animals, such as bird flocking or fish schooling. Unlike the Genetic Algorithm (GA), PSO has no evolution operators such as crossover and mutation. The basic steps in the PSO algorithm are as follows: 1- Initiate the swarm with random position value and random initial velocity. 2- Determine the velocity vector for each particle in the swarm using the knowledge of the best position attained by each particle and the swarm as a whole and also the previous position of each particle in the swarm. 3- Modifying the current position of each particle using the velocity vector and the previous position of each particle. 4- Repeat from step 2 until the stop criterion is achieved. The velocity vector of each particle is calculated according to the formula

Once the free energies are known for a wide variety of substances, the best candidates for actual batteries can be quickly discerned. In fact, a good part of the practice of thermodynamics is concerned with determining the free energies and other thermodynamic properties of individual substances in order that G for reactions can be calculated under different conditions of temperature and pressure. In the above discussion, the term reaction can be interpreted in the broadest possible sense as any transformation of matter from one form to another. In addition to chemical reactions, a reaction could be

.. (12) Where

is the particles counter

Start

is the iterative number is the velocity the position are the uniformly distributed random numbers are the acceleration constants is the inertia weight is the best position attained by the particle (i) is the global best position attained by the swarm at iteration (k-1) The position of each particle at iteration k is calculated using the formula .. (13) The typical range for the number of particles usually 20 to 40, for most of problems. The maximum velocity determines the maximum change one particle can take during one iteration. Usually the range of the particle is set as vmax. The inertia parameter control over the impact of the previous history of the velocities on a current velocity and influence the balance between global and local exploration abilities of the particles. A large inertia weight favors a global optimization and the smaller inertia weight favors a local optimization. For the value of w may be not constant (adaptive) according to simple artificial inelegance criterion, or may be a constant value. In this work it was 0.75. The acceleration constant c1&c2 indicate the stochastic (having a random probability distribution or pattern that can be analyzed statistically but not predicate precise) acceleration terms which pull each particle towards the best position attained by the particle or the beat position attained by the swarm. Low values of c1&c2 allow the particles to wander far away from the optimum regions before being tugged (pull hard or suddenly) back while the high value pull the particles toward the optimum or make the particles to pass through the optimum abruptly. PSO programs was written in MATLAB R2008a (32 bit) environment, and with computer its hardware are: AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile ZM-85, ~2.3GHz processor, 3072MB DDR3 , bus 800 ram, and 320 gigabyte, 7200 RPM hard. The flowchart of PSO algorithm could be seen in Figure (1) Is fitness criterion satisfied?
Yes

Input DATA

Initialize Swarm & Particle Velocity

Evaluate Each Particle

Select the Best Local & Global Positions Update Particle Position
Reproduction of Chromosomes

Evaluate Each New Particle

No

Stop

Figure 1 Particle swarm optimization Flow Chart Specimen Preparations The first step for preparing the specimen was to calculate the exact amount of epoxy (resin and hardener according to the manufacture instructions) for the molds as, so the amount of the filler was determine according to this formula Weight of filler to be add = epoxy weight (resin and hardener)* wetting percentage of the filler/100 .. (14) The amount of epoxy was calculated according to the mold capacity, so there were two types of molds, wear specimen (ASTM D695) mold and friction specimen (ASTM D3248) mold. A shear mixer was used to achieve good mix of epoxy ingredients (resin and hardener), and then the specific amount of filler was weighted using a sensitive laboratory balance added to the mixer with amount of sodium silicate (0.1-0.2) wt. % as a dispersion

agent, then mix the materials around 10 minutes, then purring it in the specific molds. After casting the curing condition was done using electric oven. A- Wear Test A compatible ASTM apparatus was used to measure weight method wear. Wear specimen was ASTM D695. Wear rate was calculated using weighting method, and it could summarize as follow: 1- Weight the specimen before the test using sensitive balance (W1). 2- Run the test with facing the specimen to the steel disc of the apparatus with desire weight. 3- Weight the specimen after test (W2). For fixed time test time (t) 10 minute, rotation speed (n) 500 rpm and circle path diameter (dD) of 8 cm respectively, the following relation was used .. (15) Where .. (16) .. (17) B- Hardness test D-type shore durometer compatible hardness testing device was used. It was equipped with interface system, so the reading was taking in excel form.to do so click on begin/ continue after calibrate the Durometer to start reading , after every reading press zero button on the device and it will be ready to the next reading until you finish. The hand should be steady and pressing perpendicular as possible. Mechanical tests and results Wear Test A compatible ASTM apparatus was used to measure weight method wear. Wear specimen was ASTM D695. The apparatus of wear test are shown in figure (2)

Figure 3 wear test results for Nano alumina epoxy composite Hardness test The results of hardness as seen below in Figure 4

Figure 4 Hardness shore results of Nano alumina epoxy composite Mathematical Modeling Results The results of mathematical modeling are shown in figure 5 for particle size from 15 to 105 nanometer. The base data for the software was taken for .01% weight ratio sample results.

Figure (2) Wear test in used devices The results of the five wetting percentage are shown in figure (3)

Figure 5 Particle diameters vs. wetting percentage for threshold minimum possibility of aggregation progress Discussion As well as optical properties, the mechanical properties are shown similar behavior for the experimental tests. Wear and Hardness are higher for highly concentration of Nano materials but with the minimum aggregation, and in this case it is

around 3%. Mathematical model shown similar results based on wear and hardness tests. PSO enable the researchers to predict or find out best concentration with considering known particle diameter and the opposite case is true, and it take less time comparing it with ordinary trial and error solution method. References
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