The dry sliding wear behaviour of open cell aluminum foam against mild steel

Abstract

From one perspective, wear is a phenomenon of material loss due to surface friction and their failures are characterized by classifying changes in the surface morphology of the mating component. In the case of foam materials, such as open cell aluminum foams, having interconnected porosity associated with large surface area, they acquire minimal kinetic energy for mobility during friction. Foam materials are also well known for their good qualities in thermal and noise management. This sees the foam material as an effective alternative candidate to their parents solid alloy. The objective of this work is to investigate the wear behavior of the open cell aluminum foam fabricated using matrix infiltration method on the surface of rotating mild steel under the dry sliding condition. The surface profile due to wear, microhardness and weight losses of both the open cell aluminum foam and steel disk were measured. The surface profile used the downlighting and inclined at 45° lighting techniques for the favour of distinguished appearance under the optical microscopy observations. Generally all samples showed abrasive failures due to the cutting marks without adherence. High brightness under the downlight was not able to vary the cutting marks in sizes which made among those single striations width to appear almost similar. Comparing to the 45° inclined lights, a good contrast was obtained and so ranges of cutting width were seen to be equally distributed on that open cell aluminum pin. The technique using lighting at the 45° resulted clarity on worn surface area that is less efficient by the downlight. The low hardness at 47 HV with the open cell aluminum foam showed medium wear and greater weight loss than the 155 HV mild steel sample.