Abstract
Recent developments in high pressure water-jet technology have brought the process to the forefront as a means of surface treatment. Water jet technology offers cleaning, cutting, processing as well as potential refinement of surface properties. By adapting the process parameters the surface characteristics can be changed while the profile remains the same. In the present study, water-jet technology was used for the surface treatment of Al-Si alloy to investigate its effect on tribological properties. Dry sliding wear behavior was investigated against AISI 52100 bearing steel ball using a reciprocating ball-on-flat configuration. Optical microscopy examination reveals that ploughing of grains, transgranular and intergranular propagation of cracks; are the mechanisms by which material is removed during water jet treatment. While, on the other hand, SEM observation of the wear track reveals that plastic deformation and delamination are the dominant wear mechanism during the wear process. Water jet treatment was compared to hot isostatic pressing in terms of its effects on wear resistance and surface porosity of Al-Si alloy. It was found that, hot isostatic pressing reduces the total amount of porosity at the expanse of hardness while water jet treatment produces a compressed surface having higher hardness and compressive residual stress, which ultimately increases wear resistance.
Highlights
In recent years, the use of high-pressure water jet technique became widely accepted practice in order to meet the requirements of production and maintenance
The percent surface porosity ranges from 6.71% to 2.35%, while the average pore size ranges from 82.4 μm to 46.9 μm respectively as the compaction pressure of the Al-Si alloy powder is raised (Table 2)
On the other hand, when the sintered Al-Si alloy was subjected to high pressure water-jet it is found that there is an increase of 36%, 4% and 61% in surface porosity at compact pressure of 100, 200 and 600 MPa, respectively
Summary
The use of high-pressure water jet technique became widely accepted practice in order to meet the requirements of production and maintenance. Water-jet technologies offer cleaning, machining, surface treatment and cutting of materials. Both roughening as well as polishing is possible with this procedure. It is excellent for pre-treatment of engineering surfaces. The conventional water jet technique has been used for cutting and polishing by mixing abrasive materials into the water which transport the abrasive materials to strike the substrate. High pressure water jet can produce a compressed surface layer without abrasive materials, while the core of the component remains unchanged. Water jet treatment may be an effective technique for improved surface properties
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