Sliding wear evaluation of aluminum alloy (7075-T6) on hardened steel (AISI4340) via non-contact technique by I-kaz™ multi-level analysis

Abstract

Various techniques have been developed in the area of sliding wear evaluation. This paper presents a comparative experimental study on a sliding wear measurement and evaluation system of aluminium alloy (7075-T6) on hardened steel (AISI4340). The system is capable of detecting the wear progression of the aluminium alloy. A microphone is mounted 10mm from the test rig configuration to capture the acoustic emission (AE) generated. The signal is transmitted to the amplifier and then to the data acquisition system. New statistical analysis method was used to characterise the changes in the AE signal captured via non-contact technique. The result showed that the specific wear rate, K′ value increases with the increase in sliding distance, implies that a mild-abrasion wear regime had occurred. Based on the morphology investigation, it was found that under a lubricated test, parallel grooves and craters up to 10μm in size were present, indicating the occurrence of the abrasive action of fresh abrasive particles. New equations were derived from the curve fitting of 7Z∞ as a function of specific wear rate, K׳. The trend of 7Z∞ was consistent with the sliding distance increases which shows that the coefficient is capable to be used as a wear response indicator on the sliding wear operation without having to dismantle the pin inside the test rig to measure the K׳ value.