Effects of Iron, Manganese, and Cooling Rate on Microstructure and Dry Sliding Wear Behavior of LM13 Aluminum Alloy

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe presence of Fe in eutectic Al-Si alloy can give rise to formation of a β-Al5FeSi needle-like phase because of low solubility of Fe in this alloy. The brittle nature of this phase leads to decreased mechanical properties of piston alloys, one of which is wear resistance. In this research, to modify β-Fe morphology, Sr and Mn elements were added to the samples prepared from LM13 containing different amounts of Fe. The effect of cooling rate on wear properties of this alloy was also investigated. Results show that the addition of Mn/Fe at aratio of 1/2 can modify the needle-like intermetallics present in the samples containing up to 1.2 wt% Fe. In addition, increasing the cooling rate from 3 to 15°C s−1 refined the eutectic structure and the intermetallics. Hence, it can be considered as another important factor to improve the wear properties of LM13 alloy. To study the wear behavior of this alloy, worn surface and subsurface areas were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with an energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) analyzer.