Tribological Behaviour of Aluminium/Alumina/Graphite Hybrid Metal Matrix Composite Using Taguchi’s Techniques

N. Radhika, R. Subramanian, S. Venkat Prasat

Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore-641 105..
PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore-641 004..

DOI: 10.4236/jmmce.2011.105032                

Abstract

Tribological behaviour of aluminium alloy (Al-Si10Mg) reinforced with alumina (9%) and graphite (3%) fabricated by stir casting process was investigated. The wear and frictional properties of the hybrid metal matrix composites was studied by performing dry sliding wear test using a pin-on-disc wear tester. Experiments were conducted based on the plan of experiments generated through Taguchi’s technique. A L₂₇ Orthogonal array was selected for analysis of the data. Investigation to find the influence of applied load, sliding speed and sliding distance on wear rate, as well as the coefficient of friction during wearing process was carried out using ANOVA and regression equations for each response were developed. Objective of the model was chosen as ‘smaller the better’ characteristics to analyse the dry sliding wear resistance. Results show that sliding distance has the highest influence followed by load and sliding speed. Finally, confirmation tests were carried out to verify the experimental results and Scanning Electron Microscopic studies were done on the wear surfaces.

Keywords

Metal Matrix Composites, Stir casting, Taguchi’s techniques, Orthogonal array, Analysis of variance, wear behaviour.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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