Mechanical, surface morphological and multi-objective optimization of tribological properties of V2O5 doped lead calcium titanate borosilicate glass ceramics

Abstract

In the 55[(PbxCa1−x).OTiO2]-44[2SiO2.B2O3]-1V2O5 system, various experimental studies were performed to obtain the mechanical and tribological properties of synthesized glass ceramics (GCs). The surface morphological study and elemental analysis were carried out using scanning electron microscope (SEM) followed by EDAX. The tribological measurements were also performed; based on Taguchi's L25 orthogonal array, considering different GC compositions, sliding speeds and loads. The signal to noise (S/N) ratio was used to identify the influencing parameters on minimizing wear coefficient (k) and coefficient of friction (COF). To improve the tribological properties, the modeling of output responses was performed using response surface methodology (RSM) that was being used for multi-objective optimization using a Pareto optimality approach i.e. Genetic Algorithm (GA). The experimentally achieved k and COF were compared with the earlier work that carried out by the authors for germanium (Ge) doped GC samples. It is observed that the various mechanical properties (Vickers hardness, 29 GPa, Young's modulus, 1808 MPa, and compressive strength, 221 MPa) improved significantly in comparison to the Ge doped GC samples. The improved mechanical and tribological properties of the synthesized GC can be used as a coating material for the structural alloys and machine tool slides in view of its effective wear and corrosion resistance.