Wear behaviour of hot forged SiC reinforced aluminium 6061Composite materials

Abstract

The present work aims to investigate the effect of hot forging on the wear behaviour of aluminium alloy 6061 reinforced with silicon carbide (SiC) particles of size 25 to 30 µm. Forging of the specimens was done at a temperature of 430°C. The Al-SiC composites were prepared using stir casting technique. The weight fractions of reinforcement used were 2, 4 and 6 and the cast composites were forged for reduction ratios of 20%, 40% and 60%. The wear tests were conducted at a disc rotational speed of 800 rpm and loads of 30 N, 40 N and 50 N were used for sliding distances of 1000 m, 1500 m and 2000 m. The worn-out surfaces of the samples were analysed using scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the wear rate of the forged composites was lower compared to the unforged composites. Increasing the weight percentage of SiC particles in the matrix was found to enhance the wear resistance of the composite. It was observed that the wear rate increased with increasing load and the sliding distance.