Study of Wear Behavior of Aluminum Alloy Matrix Nanocomposites Fabricated by Powder Technology

Abstract

In the present work, the dry sliding wear behavior of Al-12wt%Si matrix nanocomposites reinforced with single addition of 4wt.% Al2O3 or 4wt.%TiO2 nanoparticles, and with hybrid addition of 4wt% (Al2O3 +TiO2) nano particles is investigated. All nanocomposites samples were fabricated by powder technology by mechanical milling of the base alloy (Al-12wt%Si) powder and nanopowders of Al2O3 and TiO2, followed by cold pressing at 100bar and sintering at 520 oC for 90min. Vickers hardness test was done by using Vickers hardness tester. Archimedes technique was used to measure the density of sintered samples and porosity calculated as physical tests of sintered samples. Also AFM, SEM were used to investigate the morphology of mixed powders and nanocomposites samples. Pin – on Disc wear tests were carried out at room temperature under dry sliding conditions with using different normal loads and sliding times. Worn surface micrographs were investigated based on the optical and scanning electron microscopy observations of wear tracks and wear debris morphology. It has been found that nanocomposite with 4wt% Al2O3 nanoparticles shows the highest hardness than other nanocomposites. It was observed that the wear rate or weight loss of the base alloy and nanocomposite samples increases with the increase in applied load and sliding time. But the nanocomposites samples showed lower wear rate than the base alloy within the same conditions.

Keywords

• nano composites
• wear
• mechanical milling
• powder technology