Tribological Characteristics of Spark Plasma Sintered Al-6 wt.%SiC Composite Explored by Gray-Fuzzy Optimization Approach

The current work epitomizes the dry wear behaviors of an Al-6 wt.%SiC composite developed through spark plasma sintering. The gray-fuzzy optimization technique was used to optimize three input parameters, including applied load, sliding distance, and sliding velocity each at 4 levels. The wear experiments were done by pin-on-disc tribometer for the various input parameter combinations acquired from the L-16 orthogonal array. According to the results of the study, the highest values of GFG and GRG were 0.859 and 0.9224 at the ideal parameter level of 40 N applied load, 2000 m sliding distance, and 0.5 m/s sliding speed. From the ANOVA results, the probability of load is 0.024 (less than 0.05), which has greatly contributed to the wear rate. The confirmatory test shows an increase in GFG from 0.692 to 0.8453, indicating an improvement in wear characteristics at the appropriate level of process parameters (L1S4D1). According to the results of the experiments, the Al-6 wt.%SiC composite operating at 10 N applied stress, 2000 m sliding distance, and 0.5 m/s sliding velocity have the best wear resistance and coefficient of friction.