Effect of alumina oxide nano-powder on the wear behaviour of CrN coating against cylinder liner using response surface methodology: processing and characterizations

Abstract

The effective utilization of tribological characteristics of the mating parts is an important concern in the automobile industry. The primary intent of this work is to evaluate & enhance the tribology of a CrN coated disc (piston ring) as well as a cylindrical lining pin utilizing Al2O3 additives. The study mainly sought to significantly raise tribological characteristics by blending nano-particles with lubricating oils. In this work, the deposition of CrN coating takes place on the grey cast iron as a substrate with the help of ion plating which undeniably exhibits a strong adhesion of the layer to the substrate with improved structure and appearance. The wear behavior has been analyzed with the help of Pin on disc test wear tester at various operating conditions like speed load and lubrication. The friction and wear behavior has been analyzed with the nano additives Al2O3 along with Castrol 15W40 as lubricating oil. One of the novel optimization technique Response Surface Methodology (RSM) has been implemented for the analysis of various response parameters. The optimized value of wear rate is 0.01480 mm3/Nm at least sliding speed of 1.0 m/s and load of 80N for the nano additives lubrication. The recorded friction coefficient is 0.01140 at a load of 80N and speed 2 m/s under the influence of nano-particles in overall optimization. The wear mechanism of the CrN coating analyzed with the help of FE-SEM and EDS reveals the three body abrasion followed by erosion and particle pull-out. The increasing utilisation of Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) nano-particles as nano-additives have come to the realization that they could still aid prolong the lifespan performance of automotive parts.