Investigation of Hardness and Tribological Behaviour of Aluminium Alloy LM30 Reinforced with Silicon Carbide, Boron Carbide and Graphite

Abstract

The present paper deals with the study of hardness and wear characteristics of SiC (microsize)-, B4C (microsize)- and graphite (microsize)-reinforced aluminium LM30 metal matrix composites (MMC). Matrix alloy with (5, 7 and 13%) of SiC and B4C, and (5, 7 and 10%) of graphite were made using stir casting technique. A pin-on-disc wear testing machine was used to find out the wear rate in which E24 steel disc under dry condition and Brinell hardness testing machine was used to find the hardness of the casted material. This work mainly emphasizes on the investigation of the hardness and wear property of the casted material. The wear properties are tested in both loading and unloading conditions. Wear resistance and hardness of the material are increased when adding the SiC, B4C and graphite. The result shows that properties of stir casting material are good due to the complete dispersion of micropowder.