Erosive wear assesment of glass reinforced polyester-flyash composites using Taguchi method

Experiments are conducted to study the solid particle erosion wear behavior of glass reinforced polyester composites with flyash as a filler material. This study makes use of a methodology based on Taguchi's experimental design approach to characterize the erosion response of these composites. The procedure eliminates the need for repeated experiments and thus saves time, materials and cost. It identifies not only the significant control factors but also their interactions influencing the erosion rate predominantly. From the experimental findings an optimal combination of control factors is obtained on the basis of a proposed predictive model. This model is validated by performing a confirmation experiment with an arbitrarily chosen set of factor combination. Finally, optimal factor settings for minimum wear rate under specified experimental conditions have been determined using genetic algorithm.