Identification and modelling of applicable wear conditions for stir cast Al-composite

Abstract

A comprehensive study of the tribological performance of the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu/Al 2 O 3 composite and its matrix alloy is presented in this paper, with a specific emphasis to identify and model the applicable wear conditions where the composite provides a minimum of 50% reduction in wear rate and 25% lowering of the friction coefficient. Two-body abrasion experiments following Taguchi L 27 orthogonal design have been performed separately on alloy and composite materials, both prepared by the stir casting method. The influence of crucial control factors including silicon carbide (SiC) abrasive size, load, sliding distance, and velocity on the percentage variations of wear rates and friction coefficients between alloy and composite have been studied using the analysis of variance technique and full quadratic regression method. The dominant control factors are identified as abrasive size, load, and the interaction between abrasive size and load. This has been verified by establishing the influence of abrasive size and load on variations of wear mechanisms like microcutting, microploughing, and delamination, identified by means of in-depth characterization of worn surfaces and generated debris for both alloy and composite. The selection of applicable tribological condition for the composite has been accomplished by adopting the multi-response optimization technique based on combined desirability approach to obtain concurrent optimization of the percentage variations of wear rates and friction coefficients. Predictive models correlating the superiority of tribological performance of composite with abrasion conditions have been developed, and these are found to be accurate (errors <10%), as determined by confirmatory experiment.

Experimental Investigation on Wear and Corrosion Behavior of Stir Cast Alloys and Friction Stir Cast Welds

“…For lower and higher order wear, deformation proceeds by micro-ploughing and micro cutting respectively. Governing of wear resistance is through transition from micro ploughing to micro cutting [39].…”

Synthesis and Characterization of Borosilicate Glass Powder-Reinforced Novel Lightweight Aluminum Matrix Composites

“…Akbari et al [21] evaluated the mechanical properties of SiC, TiC, ZrO 2 , and B 4 C-reinforced aluminum matrix composite by using multiple optimization techniques prepared by friction stir processing and revealed that the TOPSIS technique was used to determine the best compromised solution from the provided Pareto-optimal set. Sardar et al [22] analyzed the wear behavior of Al 2 O 3reinforced Al-Zn-Mg-Cu matrix composite and observed that cast composite showed a 50% reduction in wear rate and 25% reduction in friction coefficient as compared to the base matrix material. Sardar et al [23] also studied the wear resistance phenomenon of 10% and 20% alumina-reinforced aluminum matrix composites by varying applied load, grain size, and sliding distance.…”