Wear characteristics studies on graphene reinforced AA7050 based composite

Abstract

Graphene reinforced aluminium alloy 7050 based metal matrix composites are manufactured using stir mixing followed by squeeze casting technique wear property tests were carried out with pin-on-disc tribometer using dry sliding method on both the developed composites and the Al alloy 7050 to evaluate the properties of the composites. Experimentation was designed and conducted by adopting Taguchi’s L27 orthogonal array for which load (10, 20 and 30 N), sliding velocity (0.6, 1.2 and 2.0 m s−1) and sliding distance (750, 1500 and 2500 m) with three levels were considered. Subsequently, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to evaluate the significance of the parameters on the wear developed over the surface of the specimen. From ANOVA, it is being inferred that load influences more on wear when compared to the sliding velocity and the distance. The microstructural analysis indicates that there is an uniform distribution of Graphene particles in the aluminium matrix which could be the possible reason for the lower wear rate on the composites when compared to the Aluminium alloy material. Further, the microstructure reveals that mild to severe transition of wear occurs while increasing the load in the aluminum composite.