Study on mechanical and tribological characteristics of layered functionally graded polymer composite materials

It is apparent that well-designed functionally graded materials (FGMs) exhibit smooth transition in properties. In this paper, polymer based functionally graded composite materials (FGCMs) were developed in combination with copper (Cu) particles and epoxy. A novel stepped layer configuration through a curing-phase approach at each layer in three different curing conditions (C1, C2, C3) have been processed. A significant enhancement in mechanical strength and erosion resistance was observed at higher curing temperatures (60°C) for sample C3. The results indicated tensile and compressive strengths of C3 enhanced by 40.20%, 17.48% and 20.18%, 9.74% compared to C1 and C2, respectively. Furthermore, when the FGM is loaded from top to bottom (T-B), there is an enhancement in flexural strength of C3 by 7.88% when compared to bottom to top (B-T) loading. In addition, the erosion wear of C3 was found to be lowest of all the samples.