Experimental and mathematical investigation of mechanical and microstructural properties of PA6/NBR nanocomposite reinforced with Silicon carbide nanoparticles

In this paper, the addition of silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticles to polyamide 6 (PA6) / acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) blends was performed by friction stir process. In order to achieve optimal mechanical responses of tensile strength and elongation at break, response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the process parameters of rotational speed (ω), traverse speed (V) and material parameter as silicon carbide nanoparticles (S) content. The validation of the mechanical results was done with compare the microstructure of nanocomposite samples by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Using mathematical models, the results showed that tensile strength and elongation at break are increased by increasing the rotational speed from 800 rpm to 1200 rpm when the values of silicon carbide content and traverse speed are constant. By selecting the rotational speed of 1200 rpm, traversed speed of 20 mm/min, and 2.784 wt.% of SiC process and material parameters, the maximum tensile strength, and elongation at break can be achieved. Observation of scanning electron microscopy images confirmed that the changes in mechanical properties are related to the changes in the elastomeric phase of NBR.