Investigation on mechanical behaviour of filament wound glass/epoxy composites subjected to water absorption and also tribological studies using Taguchi method Srikumar Biradar a,⇑ , Sharnappa Joladarashi a , S.M. Kulkarni a a Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, India article info Article history: Received 25 December 2019 Received in revised form 17 February 2020 Accepted 24 February 2020 Available online xxxx Keywords: Filament winding Glass/epoxy Water absorption Slurry erosion Taguchi method Impact strength abstract The current study is mainly focused on the mechanical and tribological behaviour of GEC (Glass Epoxy Composites) (GEC- fabricated using filament winding technique) over the effect of various water immer- sion examinations for a defined time limit. In this study we mainly focus on filament wound glass/epoxy composite samples directly taken from composite pressure vessel. The important aspect of this study is to understand and investigate the percentage reduction or increase in the various mechanical and tribolog- ical properties under the influence of moisture. Here three (sea water, purified/distil water, boiling water) water containers where samples are treated as per water absorption test ASTM standard. These treated samples are examined for different mechanical strengths. From impact testing, the influence of boiling water on impact strength of glass/epoxy is high (impact strength in increasing order untreated < dis- tilled < sea < boiling) when compared with other cases. Similar outcomes have been observed in case bending test also. Presence of water molecules enhances mechanical strength as water particles fills the gap or delays the voids or imperfections of samples to reach the boundaries. GEC samples made of filament winding process are examined for wet slurry erosion wear in an erosion testing machine as per the respective ASTM standard. The selection of number of experiments and identifying the most influ- encing parameter is done using the DOE (Design of Experiments) tool Taguchi L9 method. In the out- comes, erosion rate of glass/epoxy composite have highest influence of large sized sand particles with sand concentration 900 g, at a spindle speed of 1000 rpm. Whereas the smaller sand particles with lesser sand concentration have least impact on the erosion rate. Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2nd International Con- ference on Processing and Characterization of Materials. 1. Introduction The composite materials have found vast applications in many domestic and commercial application such as storage and trans- portation of hydrogen fuels, processing of various chemicals. From the past few decades and recent trends also suggest that the com- posite materials will not only rule the defense or aerospace appli- cations but they will surely acquire many manufacturing, bio- medical and health-oriented sectors. The main reasons for all these developments are due to their better or improved strength to weight ratio, non-corrosive nature, ease of handling, moderate or relatively cheaper fabrication rate, in some cases ease of reuse and disposal of residues or un repairable products. Currently in many sectors still metallic pressure vessels are being used in spite of their limitations. From various literature studies, polymer com- posite materials such glass fiber, carbon fiber and aramid fiber can be an alternative material for overcoming metallic material diffi- culties in case of pressure vessels used in domestic and commercial applications. There exists vast amount of literature studies data on pressure vessels. Few researchers have focused only on current require- ments such use of polymer composite pressure vessels to with- stand and store a chemical for such a period of time, to process certain chemical at a particular temperature, to transport or move the fluid from one location to another location in a chemical plants with fixed strength and to have defined strength [1–9] (tensile, compression or flexural or impact, etc.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.834 2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2nd International Conference on Processing and Characterization of Materials. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: srikumar.biradar@gmail.com (S. Biradar). Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr Please cite this article as: S. Biradar, S. Joladarashi and S. M. Kulkarni, Investigation on mechanical behaviour of filament wound glass/epoxy composites subjected to water absorption and also tribological studies using Taguchi method, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j. matpr.2020.02.834