Tribological behavior of aluminum nanocomposites studied by application of response surface methodology

Abstract

An aluminum Al-0.8Al2O3 and Al − 1.6Al2O3 nanocomposite was prepared by a novel ultrasonic assisted stir casting method. A three-level Box-Behnken design of experiment was developed using response surface methodology. Dry sliding wear tests were performed as per the experimental design using a pin-on disc setup at room temperature. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to investigate the influence of process parameters, viz., wt.% reinforcement, load and sliding distance, and their interactions on specific wear rate and coefficient of friction. Further, a mathematical model has been formulated by applying response surface method in order to estimate the tribology characteristics such as wear and COF of the nanocomposites. The specific wear rate and coefficient of friction are significantly influenced by % of Al2O3 and load. The wear test parameters were optimized for minimizing specific wear rate and COF using desirability function approach. A set of optimum parameters of combination for AMMNC was identified as Al2O3–1.1 wt.%; load, 34 N and sliding distance, 2931 m with specific wear rate, 1.06 g/N-m; and coefficient of friction, 0.305. The AFM image of Al6061–1.1Al2O3 nanocomposite at optimized condition confirms the improvement in the wear surface smoothness of the nanocomposite compared to Al6061.