Tribological Characteristics of Al 356 Alloy Reinforced with Red Mud

Abstract

Recent attention is focused on issues of utilization of industrial wastes. The paper deals with the Tribological characteristics of Al356 alloy reinforced with red mud of different volume fractions. Red mud is a gangue produced during the extraction of alumina, disposal of which has become a major issue. In recent years, the utilization of red mud as a filler material has increased due to its chemical composition, which includes metals like Fe2O3, Al2O3, Na2O and TiO2, etc. These metals exhibit good wear characteristics. The red mud collected from Malco, TamilNadu, India, is preheated in the furnace up to 500o C and 53 micron sized particles are mixed with Al356 alloy. Al MMC disc is manufactured by stir casting technique using Al356 alloy reinforced with different volume percentage (5%, 10%, 15% and 20%) of red mud. Pins of 10 mm diameter are machined from the brake shoe liner of commercial passenger car. The wear tests are then carried out on a pin-on-disc machine.. Wear rate is calculated for different percentage of reinforcement under different test conditions. The wear grooves formed on the Al MMC disc for all percentage of red mud are analyzed using optical micrograph. The results show that applied load and sliding velocity have significant influence on wear rate of composite. The co-efficient of friction decreases when the load increases. Experimental analysis is carried using Taguchis Design of Experiment method with various parameters like sliding velocities, applied load and composite volume fraction to identify the key factors that influence the wear rate. The Taguchi experiments results confirm the actual results obtained from the numerical calculation.