Tribological Study of Titanium Carbide Reinforced HDPE Polymer Composite Under Dry Sliding Condition

Titanium carbide (TiC) was used as filler material in the High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) matrix to enhance the wear properties. Composites were fabricated by varying TiC weight percentages (wt.%) in the range between 0 and 9 wt.% and were produced by melt extrusion followed by injection molding. A good filler dispersion was obtained for all the materials despite the presence of a few voids and agglomerates observed at increasing TiC loadings. Wear tests were conducted on Pin on disc machine under different loading conditions (5N, 10N, 15N, 20N) to analyze the influence of the TiC on the wear behavior of fabricated samples. As the weight percentage of TiC increases from 0 to 9%, there is a consistent decrease in wear rate as well as coefficient of friction across all normal loads (5N, 10N, 15N, and 20N). This indicates that a higher concentration of TiC is associated with improved wear resistance in the composite material notably, the 6 wt.% of TiC consistently exhibits lower wear rates for all normal loads, suggesting that this concentration is particularly effective in minimizing wear. The wear rate experienced a reduction of approximately 28% at a 6 wt.% of TiC under a load of 20N compared with other samples under the same loading condition. Surface morphology analysis using SEM was conducted to obtain the wear mechanism in the polymer composites.