Ranking analysis of flyash – basalt fibre – polyamide 66 polymer composites based on the mechanical and sliding wear performance metrics using hybrid AHP-R method

Abstract

This research work investigates the physical, mechanical, thermal, thermo-mechanical, and dry sliding wear characteristics of hybrid flyash particulates (F-class; 0 – 20 wt.% at the step of 5%)–basalt fibres (chopped; fixed 10 wt.%) reinforced polyamide 66 polymer composites fabricated using the twin screw extruder and injection moulding machine. Taguchi's design of experiment optimization approach is used for parameter optimization of the dry sliding wear process, followed by analysis of variance analysis. Further, the hybrid AHP-R method is used for ranking optimization based on the performance metrics. It is observed that the composition having 15 wt.% flyash particulates optimizes overall performance metrics, hence recommended for industrial parts fabrications. It has an experimental density of 1.23 g/cc, voids content of 5.93%, water absorption of 4.21%, tensile strength of 110.73 MPa, flexural strength of 146.72 MPa, Rockwell hardness of 62.44 HRM, fracture toughness of 4.17 MPa√m, impact strength of 2.06 J, the thermal conductivity of 1.24 W/mK, and specific wear rate of 7.55 × 10 −4 mm 3 /Nm. The overall subjective ranking of the hybrid polymer composites attunes with the objective ranking by the hybrid AHP-R method.