Effect of dry sliding wear parameters on the tribological behavior of aluminum hybrid metal matrix composites

The influence of different weight percentages of Tungsten Carbide (WC) and Graphite (Gr) in an Aluminium LM6 Alloy (Al-Si12) was investigated for the Tribological aspects. Aluminium is known to possess poor tribological characteristics ? this research work primarily focuses on how it?s possible to enhance the tribological characteristics of aluminium by incorporating the reinforcements Tungsten Carbide and Graphite. Tungsten Carbide is an extremely hard compound with a Vickers hardness number of about 2600. On the other hand, Graphite and graphite powder, which are highly refractory, are valued in industrial applications for their self-lubricating and dry lubricating properties. We performed standardized tests on the aluminium hybrid metal matrix composite specimens and determined the exact weight percentage of reinforcement for optimum wear properties as well as for tensile strength. The Pin-on-Disc sliding wear test was performed under the action of different contact loads following the ASTM G99 Standard. We then performed statistical analysis by Taguchi?s Technique and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to determine the most dominating factor that influences Wear Rate for the optimum weight percentage of reinforcement. By enhancing wear resistance of Aluminium, the material can be used in applications where low weight, high strength and corrosion resistance are key factors in addition to high wear resistance. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Advanced Materials Behavior and Characterization.