Influence of rolling on wear and friction behaviour of spray formed Al alloy composites

Abstract

In the present investigation, Influence of rolling on wear and friction behavior of Al alloy composite has been studied. The composite, namely Al-Si alloy reinforced with graphite was developed through the unique spray forming route in the spray forming chamber by using N2 as an atomization gas. Developed spray formed Al alloy composite was gone through to the warm rolling with different thickness reduction ranges on non reversing rolling mill at constant temperature 250 °C. The microstructural and mechanical testing results indicate that the warm rolling of the composite increases the distribution of the graphite and silicon particles, minimizing the porosity with the refinement of α-aluminium grains of the matrix and improves the mechanical properties. The wear and friction testing results indicate that with an increase in sliding distance, volume loss of the composite with all rolling reduction increases. Similar kind of behaviour is also observed between the wear rate and applied load. However, with the rolling reduction, the wear rate of the composite decreases. In spite of that, the average coefficient of friction decreases with an increasing the applied load and the rolling reduction of the composite while it shows a fluctuation tendency with the sliding distance. The surfaces after the wear tests are also studied under the different surface characterization techniques to quantify the surface parameter and the operative wear mechanisms. The tribological properties are also correlated with the microstructural properties of the composite with different rolling reduction.