Dry sliding wear behavior of A2218/Al3Fe composites fabricated by plasma synthesis method

The wear behavior of an A2218 alloy and an A2218/Al3Fe composite fabricated by the plasma synthesis method was investigated under dry sliding conditions. The wear tests were carried out at a sliding speed of 0.2 m/s and at the load range of 3-600 N. The variation of wear rate with applied load is composed of two regions for both materials and the two regions belong to mild wear. On the basis of observation and analysis on the worn surface, subsurface and the wear debris, the wear mechanism acting on each region was identified. At low loads, oxidative wear is the main wear mechanism and at high loads, the wear is controlled mainly by delamination and adhesive wear mechanism and oxidative wear is an additional wear mechanism. The A2218/Al3Fe composite exhibits an improved wear resistance at lower loads. On the contrary, at higher loads, due to the presence of the mechanical mixed layer on the worn surface of the A2218 monolithic alloy, both the monolithic alloy and composite exhibit similar wear rate.