Sliding wear characteristics of Al-4032/SiC/GMP hybrid composites using L-16 orthogonal array

Abstract

The wear characteristics of the aluminium alloy (Al-4032) matrix-based hybrid composites (AMHCs) has been investigated through the DUCOM pin-on-disc tribometer. The AMHCs have been fabricated through the bottom pouring vacuum stir casting set up, using the mixture of silicon carbide (SiC) and granite marble powder ceramic particles in equal proportion, as the hybrid reinforcement at 0, 3, 6, 9 weight%. The mass loss has been considered as the response parameter and ‘Smaller-the-Better’ criteria has been adopted as the objective model in the study. The optimization of the control parameters i.e., composition, normal load, sliding time and sliding speed has been produced using main effect of means and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) methods. It is observed that all four control parameters have considerable influence on the wear characteristics of the AMHCs. The wear resistance of the AMHCs increases with increase in the amount of reinforcement up to 6%, followed by a decreasing trend beyond this value. This may be due to agglomeration of the reinforced particles at higher weight fraction. The percentage contribution of the control parameters such as composition, normal load, sliding time and sliding speed is 39.78%, 20.91%, 17.39% and 20.02% respectively.