Abstract
Due to light weight, high specific strength, high corrosion resistance and good heat transfer ability, aluminium alloys are becoming attractive for critical structural applications. These alloys can be manufactured using powder metallurgy techniques in which porosity is a common characteristic. The presence of pores is responsible for decreasing effective load bearing cross sectional area and inducing stress concentration sites for strain localization and damage, decreasing both strength and ductility. The present study aims to establish a better understanding of the relationship between surface porosity and corresponding wear behavior. In this study, porous specimens were produced using powder metallurgy technique and the extent of wear damage and the type of wear was investigated under low load range of 1.5 - 5 N against AISI 52100 bearing steel ball using a reciprocating ball-on-flat configuration and frequency of 10 Hz. Scanning electron microscopy of the wear tracks and wear debris was carried out to understand wear mechanisms. This study revealed that due to combined effect of high stress intensity and subsurface cracking, wear rate increases with increasing porosity content. The friction and wear behavior of pure Al and Al 6061 as a function of porosity content can be attributed to their hardness and corresponding wear mechanism.
Highlights
Wear is one of the main causes for component damage and subsequent failure of machines and devices
Pure Al specimen with no wax has shown the least amount of surface porosity
In case of pure Al, a reduction in hardness of about 40% is observed as surface porosity increases from 1.9% to 15.1% and for Al 6061 90% hardness reduction is observed as porosity increases from 3.5% to 20.7 %
Summary
Wear is one of the main causes for component damage and subsequent failure of machines and devices. Its mitigation by appropriate material choice, coating, surface design or lubrication is of high economic. How to cite this paper: Sinha, A. and Farhat, Z. (2015) Effect of Surface Porosity on Tribological Properties of Sintered Pure Al and Al 6061. Wear is related to interactions between surfaces and the removal and deformation of material on a surface as a result of mechanical action of the opposite surface. Wear is affected by many material and environmental variables and leads to loss of material and dimension [1]. The wear of materials may occur due to adhesion, abrasion, surface fatigue or tribo-chemical reaction
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