Effect of powder processing parameters on erosive wear of 10 wt% MWCNTs/MnO2 nanocomposite through Taguchi method

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the optimum powder metallurgy processing parameters adopted to evaluate the erosive wear of MWCNTs/MnO2 nanocomposite. The X-ray diffraction technique confirmed the formation of MWCNTs/MnO2 nanocomposite. In this study, four factors—compaction pressure, sintering temperature, holding time, and cooling atmosphere—were taken as controlled input variables. The signal-to-noise ratio, analysis of variance, and contour plots were used to study the effect of input variables on the response. Taguchi’s L8 orthogonal array was selected for performing experiments. After conducting the experiments under different experimental conditions, the response was evaluated, as was the corresponding signal-to-noise ratio. The results indicated that the optimum combination of parameters was A2B2C1D2. The analysis of variance and contour plots showed that compaction pressure was the most influential variable that affects the erosive wear of the nanocomposite. Further, the confirmation test revealed that the % error between the estimated and experimental signal-to-noise of erosive wear rate was 6.01%. The microscopic images confirmed that all the samples were brittle and fractured from the nanocomposite surface during the erosion process.