INFLUENCES OF BORON CARBIDE PARTICLES ON THE WEAR RATE AND TENSILE STRENGTH OF AA2014 SURFACE COMPOSITE FABRICATED BY FRICTION-STIR PROCESSING

Abstract

In this article, a boron carbide particle (B4C) reinforced AA2014 surface composite was first fabricated by friction-stir processing (FSP) to investigate the impact of the volume percentage of B4C, tool rotational speed and table speed on the tensile strength (TS) and wear rate (WR). The AA2014 composite is one of the important candidates for making defense and aerospace components due to its high strength and minimum weight. Taguchi orthogonal array was employed to design and predict the maximum tensile strength and minimum wear rate. The volume percentage of B4C is the most momentous parameter for both the tensile strength and wear rate. The optimum parameter settings for attaining the maximum tensile strength of 605 MPa and a minimum wear rate of 1.2 mm3/Nm are a B4C volume of 15 %, tool rotational speed of 900 min–1 and table speed of 60 mm/min. The optimum process-parameter settings were used to make a specimen for validating the estimated results. The microstructure and chemical composition of the surface composite of the optimum specimen were illustrated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. The surface profile and microscopic view of the worn-out surface composite were also examined using SEM images.