The effect of abrasive particle size on the wear behaviour of metal matrix composites

The effect of abrasive particle size on the wear behavior of the SiC particle-reinforced aluminium composites produced by liquid metallurgy was investigated under different sizes of SiC grits at a fixed speed. The results show that the wear loss of composite was considerably lower than that of aluminium alloy. The wear loss increased linearly with sliding distance for both materials, but indicating a considerable difference. It increased with increasing SiC abrasive particles. Moreover, SEM examination indicates that abrasive wear observed for the matrix alloy. The depth of wear grooves decreased with decreasing the abrasive particle size and load. For the composites, wear surfaces were found to be a quite smooth indicating that no abrasive grooves appeared.