Sliding Wear Response of Beryl Reinforced Aluminum Composite - A Factorial Design Approach

Abstract

Al-Beryl MMCs were successfully fabricated using powder metallurgy route. Processing conditions such as beryl content and particle size were varied and its influence on dry sliding wear response was studied. Effect of test parameters like applied load and sliding distance on wear performance of Al-Beryl MMCs were discussed detail. Sliding wear tests were conducted using a pin on disc machine based on the 24 (4 factors at 2 levels) factorial design. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to obtain the contribution of control parameters on wear rate. The present study shows that wear resistance of Al-beryl MMCs not only depends on the beryl content but also influenced by normal load, sliding distance and particle size. The results show that most significant variables affecting wear rate of Al - beryl MMCs are size of the beryl particles (22%), beryl content (19.60%), sliding distance (18.47%), and normal load (10.30%). The interaction effects of these parameters are less significant in influencing wear rate compared to the individual parameters. The correlation between sliding wear and its parameters was obtained by multiple regression analysis. Regression model developed in the present study can be successfully implemented to predict the wear response of Al-Beryl MMCs.