Investigation on Red Brick Dust Filled Epoxy Composites Using Ant Lion Optimization Approach Pravat Ranjan Pati , 1 Mantra Prasad Satpathy 2 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education, Hyderabad, Telangana, India 2 School of Mechanical Engineering, KIIT Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India This article reports on the characterization and erosion wear performance of a new class of epoxy composites filled with micro-sized red brick dust (RBD) particles. Although a number of ways for its utilization have been suggested in the past, its potential as a filler material in polymeric matrices has not yet been explored so far. In this work, composites with different RBD content are pre- pared by simple hand layup technique. The composites are characterized in regard to their density, porosity, micro-hardness, and strength properties. Solid particle erosion trials are conducted following a well-planned experimental schedule based on Taguchi design-of-exper- iments. The morphology of composite surfaces is then examined by scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, a novel nature-inspired ant lion optimizer (ALO) algorithm is proposed in this work to achieve minimum erosion wear rate. This algorithm mimics the behavior of antlions in nature. It provides a very competitive result over other evolutionary algorithms due to its characteristics like improved exploration, avoidance of local optima, quick convergence and less number of tuning parameters. The wear rate value obtained by ALO exhibit the lowest one as compared to the traditional Taguchi result. POLYM. COMPOS., 2019. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers INTRODUCTION A composite material is made up of a matrix, and a rein- forcement phase. Typically, in a composite, the reinforcing materials are strong with low densities while the matrix is usually a ductile or tough material. The composite combines the strength of the reinforcement with the toughness of the matrix to achieve a combination of desirable properties not available in any single conventional material, if it is designed and fabricated correctly. The strength of the composites depends primarily on the amount, arrangement, and type of fiber and/or particle reinforcement in the resin. Generally, particulate fillers are used in polymers for a variety of reasons such as cost reduction, improved processing, density control, optical effects, thermal conductivity, modified elec- trical and magnetic properties, flame retardancy, improved hardness, and wear resistance. Hard particulate fillers con- sisting of ceramic or metal particles and fiber-fillers made of glass are being used these days to improve the performance of polymer composites to a great extent [1]. Similarly, ceramic filled polymer composites have also been the sub- ject of extensive research in last two decades. When silica particles are added into a polymer matrix, they play an important role in improving electrical, mechanical, and ther- mal properties of the composites [2, 3]. Yamamoto et al. [4] reported that the structure and shape of silica particle have significant effects on the mechanical properties such as fatigue resistance, tensile, and fracture properties. Nakamura et al. [5, 6] discussed the effects of size and shape of silica particles on the strength and fracture toughness based on particle–matrix adhesion. Nicolais and Nicodemo [7] studied the effect of particle shape on tensile properties of glassy thermoplastic composites. While most of these investigations have focused either on the particle shape or on particle size, the study made by Patnaik et al. [8] reported that the mechanical properties of polyester based hybrid composites are highly influenced also by the type and content of the filler materials. Padhi et al. [9] reported on processing, char- acterization and wear analysis of short glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene composites filled with blast furnace slag particles. Tagliavia et al. [10] reported analysis of flexural properties of composites filled with hollow particles. They studied the flexural properties of hollow-glass particle filled vinyl ester composites, which are used in marine applications. Hassan et al. [11] studied morphological and mechanical properties of carbonized waste maize stalk as reinforcement for eco-composites. Agrawal and Satapathy [12] developed a heat conduction model and investigated on thermal conductivity enhancement of AlN/epoxy com- posites. They further investigated thermal and dielectric properties of epoxy and polypropylene reinforced with micro-sized AlN particles [13]. However, the utilization of this waste (RBD) in the present day scenario is very Correspondence to: P. R. Pati; e-mail: pravatpati99@gmail.com DOI 10.1002/pc.25246 Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers POLYMER COMPOSITES—2019