Experimental investigation on slurry erosive behaviour of biodegradable flexible composite and optimization of parameters using Taguchi's approach.

In the present study, the emphasis is on analysing the slurry erosive behaviour of novel green flexible composite made from jute fiber and natural rubber of ribbed smoke sheet (RSS) grade. The bonding gum made of natural rubber is used to bind the fiber and RSS rubber. Three different stacking sequences namely jute-rubber-jute (JRJ), jute-rubber-rubberjute (JRRJ) and jute-rubber-jute-rubber-jute (JRJRJ) are considered. Erosive studies are carried out on the prepared composites under three different rotation speeds (500, 1000 and 1500 rpm) and three different sand concentration (50, 75 and 100 gms) with silica sand as the abrasive medium dispersed in tap water. Design of experiments (DOE) is carried out using Taguchi's L9 orthogonal array on slurry erosion test to find out the effect of the stacking sequence, rotation speed and sand concentration on the weight loss of the composite. Through ANOVA, it was concluded that sand concentration is the main factor affecting the weight loss of composite. Regression model is developed and it was found that the developed model is adequate and feasible to predict the weight loss due to slurry erosion within the range of experimental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]