Comparative Study on Erosive Wear Response of SiC Reinforced and Fly Ash Reinforced Aluminium Based Metal Matrix Composite

Abstract

In this study an attempt has been made to compare the microstructure, mechanical property and erosive wear response of ADC 12 alloy reinforced with 10 wt% of SiC and Fly ash. Both the composites and base alloy were fabricated through liquid metallurgy route. The wear behaviour was examined by the sample rotation technique using slurry pot erosion tester. The wear tests were conducted in two different environments namely mining and basic atmosphere. Sand concentrations in the slurry are varied from 0-60% in the step of 20 while speed of the rotation was fixed at 1100 RPM for all the samples. Wear rates were computed using weight loss technique. To examine the influence of the SiC and Fly ash particle dispersion, matrix alloy was also characterized under similar conditions.The microstructure of as cast aluminum alloy shows primary Al dendrites and secondary intermetallic phases around the dendrites. The SiC and Fly Ash particles are noted to be uniformly distributed within the metallic matrix and these particles are trapped within the primary aluminium dendrites instead of interdendritic region. Both the composites exhibited better wear resistance than the matrix alloy in the mining environment while in basic environment reverse trend of behavior is obtained. ADC12-SiC composite exhibited better wear resistance than the ADC12-Fly ash composite in both media irrespective of the sand content.