Wear behaviour of aluminium alloy 5083/SiC/fly ash inoculants based functional composites – optimization studies

Abstract

The wear characteristics of Aluminium AA 5083/SiC/Fly Ash functional composites under different load conditions are an important aspect to assess the inoculation of Fly Ash for enhancing the functionality of the aluminium composites with respect to its tribological behaviour and its influence on wear properties. The present work is majorly aimed at the development of AA 5083/SiC functional composites inoculated with Fly Ash using stir casting method for different blends of the reinforcements (2.5, 5 & 7.5 wt%). The novelty of this research is majorly attributed to the incorporation of functional inoculants in the form of Fly Ash, which along with the SiC is bound to influence the tribological characteristics of the composites. The wear characteristics of these fabricated composites have been investigated considering various process parameters viz., the load, sliding distance, sliding velocity, wt% of SiC and wt% of Fly Ash, based on the operational requirements of the composites in real time considered from the earlier research studies and the influence of each parameter on the wear rate is discussed. Based on the different wear regimes obtained after characterization of the samples at different load conditions, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is carried out for each blend of the samples to statistically validate the experimental outcomes. The results have given sufficient substantiation to the fact that wear rate decreases with the inoculation. The wear rate and coefficient of friction (COF) is minimum viz., 0.00095 mm3/m, and 0.301 respectively for L9 experimental trial, i.e., for the composite specimens synthesized by reinforcing 7.5 wt% SiC, and 7.5 wt% Fly Ash for a load of 20 N, sliding velocity of 6 m s−1, and a sliding distance of 3000 m. The results have conferred that micro segregation (coring) of SiC and uniform dispersion of Fly Ash in the matrix enhances its tribological characteristics.