An investigation on the effect of nanoparticle reinforcement and weld surface shape on bending behavior of rotary friction-welded high-density polyethylene

In this research, high-density polyethylene rods were joined together using rotary friction-welding. The effects of nanoparticle reinforcement and weld surface shape on the welded joint strength were investigated. To this aim, high-density polyethylene rods with a length of 50 mm and a diameter of 22 mm were machined, and three weld surface shapes, that is, flat, step, and conic shapes (on male and female counterparts), were created. The high-density polyethylene rods were rotary friction-welded with the addition of ZnO and SiO2 nanoparticles. The bending strength of rotary friction-welded rods was assessed by conduction of three-point bending tests. The results showed that both the weld surface shape and nanoparticles influence the bending strength of the welded joints. It was found that the step sample welds have higher bending strength (average bending depth and force of 6.27 mm and 2027.8 N, respectively). Furthermore, except for the case of flat samples, the addition of the reinforcement nanoparticles resulted in the improvement of the bending strength of the rotary friction-welded rods.