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Aluminium metal matrix composites reinforced with SiC and graphite (Gr) particles was prepared by liquid metallurgy route. Dry sliding wear behaviour of the composite was tested and compared with Al / SiCp composite.
Aluminium metal matrix composites reinforced with SiC and graphite (Gr) particles was prepared by liquid metallurgy route. Dry sliding wear behaviour of the composite was tested and compared with Al / SiCp composite.
Aluminium metal matrix composites reinforced with SiC and graphite (Gr) particles was prepared by liquid metallurgy route. Dry sliding wear behaviour of the composite was tested and compared with Al / SiCp composite.
Application of Taguchi techniques to study dry sliding wear
behaviour of metal matrix composites S. Basavarajappa a, * , G. Chandramohan a , J. Paulo Davim b a Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641 004, India b Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Aveiro, Campus Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal Received 11 July 2005; accepted 3 January 2006 Available online 3 March 2006 Abstract Aluminium metal matrix composites reinforced with SiC and graphite (Gr) particles was prepared by liquid metallurgy route. Dry sliding wear behaviour of the composite was tested and compared with Al/SiCp composite. A plan of experiments based on Taguchi technique was used to acquire the data in a controlled way. An orthogonal array and analysis of variance was employed to investigate the inuence of wear parameters like as normal load, sliding speed and sliding distance on dry sliding wear of the composites. The objec- tive was to investigate which design parameter signicantly aects the dry sliding wear. It shows that graphite particles are eective agents in increasing dry sliding wear resistance of Al/SiCp composite. 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Dry sliding wear; Taguchi technique; Analysis of variance 1. Introduction Metal matrix composite materials are advanced materi- als, which combine tough metallic matrix with a hard ceramic or soft reinforcement to produce composite mate- rials [1,2]. These materials have superior properties com- pared to the monolithic materials and can be tailarable to a specic applications [3,4]. Metal matrix composite materials show advantages in a great number of specic applications (aircraft, automobile, machines) due to their high specic strength and stiness, wear resistance and dimensional stability. The most popular hard reinforce- ments are silicon carbide, alumina and soft reinforcement as graphite [57]. These materials have shown to have dif- ferent strengthening mechanisms when compared to con- ventional materials or continuous reinforced composites [8]. Thus, much research, both experimental and analyti- cal, has been performed to gain a better understanding of mechanical behaviour of these materials and their excellent wear resistance. The presence of hard reinforce- ment phases, particulates, bres or whiskers has endowed these composites with good tribological (friction and wear) characteristics. The wear resistance with good spe- cic strength and modulus make them good candidate for many engineering situations where sliding contact is expected. Sannino et al. [9] undertook an extensive review work on dry sliding wear characteristics of aluminium alloy based composites, and abrasive wear behaviour wear by Deuis et al. [10]. In their study and discussion, the eect of reinforcement volume fraction and size, sliding distance, applied load, sliding speed, hardness of the counter face and properties of the reinforcement phase, that inuences the dry sliding wear behaviour of this group of composites were examined in greater detail. The sliding wear rate and wear behaviour were reported to be inuenced by several wear parameters [1116]. Lim et al. [17] studies the tribological behaviour of Al Cu/SiCp metal matrix composites and reported with increasing the mechanical properties, wear resistance also 0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2006.01.006 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 422 2572177/2572477; fax: +91 422 2573833. E-mail address: basavarajappas@yahoo.com (S. Basavarajappa). www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes Materials and Design 28 (2007) 13931398 Materials & Design be increased drastically, and it will eect the counter face. Mohan et al. [16], under the conclusion that the incorpo- ration of graphite after 1% slightly reduces the mechanical properties, but enhances the wear resistances of the mate- rial. The incorporation of graphite in the composite smears on the surface and forms a layer that reduces the wear. The wear resistance of the graphitic composites is more due to the inherent property of the natural lubri- cation. The ceramicgraphite hybrid composites demon- strated that wear resistance can substantially increases without loosing properties compared to the Al/SiCp com- posite [1820]. Sahin [21] conducted an abrasive wear test on Al2011 alloy with 510 wt% SiCp content with 3264 lm reinforce- ment size. Factorial designs of experiments were used to assess the contribution of applied load, sliding distance and particle size. The abrasive wear was the response of the material running against SiCp and Al 2 O 3 emery papers under dierent sliding conditions. He concluded that the wear rate of the matrix and the composite materials increased with increasing the abrasive size, applied load and sliding distance when SiC abrasive paper was used. However, the wear rate increased with increasing abrasive size and applied load and decreased with increasing sliding distance when the Al 2 O 3 emery paper was selected. Esteban Fernandez et al. [22] described a multi-factor based on experiments that has been applied to investigating an abra- sive wear system of Ni-based alloy coatings with and with- out WC reinforcement. They reported that abrasive grain size exerted the greatest eect on abrasive wear followed by reinforcement. The applied load and the environment were similarly found to have minor eect. The addition of WC reinforcement particles improved wear resistance of NiCrBSi alloy coating. Increasing abrasive grain size led to obviously greater wear, especially for NiCrBSi with- out WC. Wear loss was increased with applied load, but showed unclear tendencies as regards the inuence of envi- ronments. Mondal et al. [23] studied the two-body abrasive wear behaviour of a cast aluminium alloy 10 wt% Al 2 O 3 particle composite was studied at dierent loads (17 N) and abrasive sizes (3080 lm). The wear behaviour was predicted through statistical analyses of the measured wear rate at dierent operating conditions. The developed model qualitatively hold good for alloy and individual variables such as load and abrasive size on the wear resistance of the composites. They concluded along with reinforcement size and the load the interaction factors also quite signi- cant and one must take into consideration these terms for determining the wear rate of these materials. In view of the above, an attempt is made in this investi- gation to study the eect of applied load, sliding speed and sliding distance on dry sliding wear behaviour of the Al/ SiCp and Al/SiCpGr composites using Taguchi design of experiments. The analysis of variance was employed to nd the percentage of inuence of various factors and its interaction on dry sliding wear of the composites. 2. Taguchi techniques Taguchi technique is a powerful tool for the design of high quality systems [2426]. It provides a simple ecient and systematic approach to optimize designs for perfor- mance, quality and cost. The methodology is valuable when design parameters are qualitative and discrete. Tagu- chi parameter design can optimize the performance charac- teristics through the setting of design parameters and reduce the sensitivity of the system performance to source of variation [26,27]. This technique is multi-step process, which follow a certain sequence for the experiments to yield an improved understanding of product or process performance. This design of experiments process made up of three main phases: the planning phase, the conducting phase and analysis interpretation phase. The planning phase is the most important phase one must give a maxi- mum importance to this phase. The data collected from all the experiments in the set are analyzed to determine the eect of various design parameters. This approach is to use a fractional factorial approach and this may be accomplished with the aid of orthogonal arrays. Analysis of variance is a mathematical technique, which is based on a least square approach. The treatment of the experi- mental results is based on the analysis of average and anal- ysis of variance [28,29]. 3. Experimental procedure 3.1. Materials Aluminium alloy 2219 was used as the matrix material in the present investigation and present following the chemical composition (%): Si = 0.2 max, Fe = 0.3 max, Cu = 5.86.8, Mn = 0.20.4, Mg = 0.02 max, Zn = 0.1 max, V = 0.050.15, Ti = 0.020.1, Zr = 0.10.25, Al = balance. This matrix was chosen, since it provides excellent combina- tion of strength and damage tolerance at elevated and cryogenic tempera- ture. Two types of composites are used, one with 15 wt% of SiCp reinforcement of size 25 lm and a second one with 15% SiCp reinforce- ment, 3 wt% of graphite is added with a particle size of 45 lm. Liquid met- allurgy method was used to fabricate the composites which was used by the other researchers [3032]. 3.2. Plan of experiments The experiments were conducted as per the standard orthogonal array. The selection of the orthogonal array is based on the condition that the degrees of freedom for the orthogonal array should be greater than or equal to sum of those wear parameters [2629]. In the present investiga- tion, an L 27 orthogonal array was chosen, which has 27 rows and 13 col- umns as shown in Table 1. The wear parameters chosen for the experiment was (i) sliding speed, (ii) load and (iii) sliding distance. Table 2, indicates the factors and their level. The experiment consists of 27 tests (each row in the L 27 orthogonal array) and the columns were assigned with parameters. The rst column was assigned to sliding speed (S), second column was assigned to load (L), and fth column was assigned to sliding distance (D) and the remaining columns were assigned to their interactions. The response to be studied was the wear with the objective of smaller is the bet- ter. The experiments were conducted as per the orthogonal array with level of parameters given in each array row. The wear test results were subject to the analysis of variance. 1394 S. Basavarajappa et al. / Materials and Design 28 (2007) 13931398 3.3. Experimental set up and procedure A pin-on-disc test apparatus shown in Fig. 1 was used to investigate the dry sliding wear characteristics of the composite as per ASTM G99- 95 standards. The wear specimen with 10 mm of diameter and 30 mm height was cut from as cast samples machined and then polished metallo- graphically. The block diagram shown in Fig. 2 shows the step-by-step procedure used to evaluate the dry sliding wear. The initial weight of the specimen was measured in a single pan electronic weighing machine with least count of 0.0001 g. During the test the pin was pressed against the counter part rotating against EN32 steel disc with hardness of 65 HRc by applying the load. After running through a xed sliding dis- tance, the specimens were removed, cleaned with acetone, dried and weighed to determine the weight loss due to wear. The dierence in the weight measured before and after test gives the dry sliding wear of the composite specimen and then the volume loss was calculated. The wear of the composites was studied as a function of the sliding distance, applied load and the sliding speed. 4. Results and discussions 4.1. Statistical analysis The experiments were conducted with an aim of relat- ing the inuence of sliding speed (S), applied load (L) and sliding distance (D) with dry sliding wear of both the composites under study. On conducting the experiments as per the orthogonal array, the dry sliding wear results for various combinations of parameters were obtained and shown in Table 3. The purpose of the statistical anal- ysis of variance (ANOVA) is to investigate which design parameter signicantly aects the wear characteristic. Based on ANOVA the optimal combinations of the pro- cess parameters are predicted. This analysis is carried out for level of signicance of 1% (i.e., the level of con- dence 99%) [26,27]. Tables 4 and 5 show the results of ANOVA analysis for both SiCp and SiCpGr reinforced composite materials, respectively. It can be observed from the ANOVA analysis that the (i) sliding speed, (ii) load and (iii) sliding distance on dry sliding wear of the com- posite. The interaction between the above factors does not have signicant inuence on the wear of both the composites under study. The column 5 of the ANOVA analysis of SiCp reinforced composite (Table 4) indicates the percentage contribution (p) of each factor on the total variation indicating their degree of inuence on the result. If can be observed from Table 4 that the sliding distance (p = 57.57%), load (p = 24.34%) and sliding speed (p = 6.8%). However, the interaction between sliding speed and load is (p = 2.15%) and other factors are min- imum. The pooled error is 6.64%. In the case of Graphitic hybrid composite, the column 5 of the ANOVA analysis in Table 5 indicates the percentage contribution (p) of each factor on the total variation indicating their degree of inuence on the result. It can be observed from Table 5 that the sliding speed (p = 57.24%) load (p = 22.58%) and sliding speed (p = 9.66%). However, the interactions between the factors are minimum. The pooled error is 5.32%. In Al/SiCp and Al/SiCpGr composites, the dry sliding wear parameters have statistical and physical sig- nicance. The interactions between the parameters in both the materials have statistical signicance but do not have any physical signicance (error > percentage contribution of interactions). The percentage of inuence of each fac- tor is more or less same and it indicates that the incorpo- Table 1 Orthogonal array L 27 (3 13 ) of Taguchi [24] L 27 (3 13 ) test 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 5 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 1 1 1 6 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 1 1 1 2 2 2 7 1 3 3 3 1 1 1 3 3 3 2 2 2 8 1 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 3 3 3 9 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 10 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 11 2 1 2 3 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 12 2 1 2 3 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 13 2 2 3 1 1 2 3 2 3 1 3 1 2 14 2 2 3 1 2 3 1 3 1 2 1 2 3 15 2 2 3 1 3 1 2 1 2 3 2 3 1 16 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 3 2 1 2 3 1 17 2 3 1 2 2 3 1 1 2 3 3 1 2 18 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 2 3 1 1 2 3 19 3 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 20 3 1 3 2 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 21 3 1 3 2 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 22 3 2 1 3 1 3 2 2 1 3 3 2 1 23 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 3 2 1 1 3 2 24 3 2 1 3 3 2 1 1 3 2 2 1 3 25 3 3 2 1 1 3 2 3 2 1 2 1 3 26 3 3 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 2 3 2 1 27 3 3 2 1 3 2 1 2 1 3 1 3 2 Table 2 Process parameters with their values at three levels Level Sliding speed, S (m/s) Load, L (N) Sliding distance, D (m) 1 1.53 9.81 500 2 3.06 19.6 1000 3 4.59 39.2 1500 Fig. 1. The schematic view of the pin on disc apparatus used in this study. S. Basavarajappa et al. / Materials and Design 28 (2007) 13931398 1395 ration of graphitic composite under study will inuence in increasing the wear resistance compare to the SiCp rein- forced composite at all conditions but it will not make any impact over the change in percentage of inuence of the individual wear parameters. 4.2. Wear mechanism The asperities of pin and counter face which are in con- tact are subjected to relative motion under the inuence of applied load. Initially both the surfaces are associated with a large number of sharp asperities and contact between them takes place primarily at these points. Under the inu- ence of applied load and speed, the asperities in each sur- face come in contact with each other and they are either plastically deformed or remain in elastic contact. As the asperities are very sharp in nature, the eective stress on these sharp points may be more than the elastic stress and then all these sharp asperities are plastically deformed at their contact points except the partially projected points of the reinforcement. The plastically deformed surface will As cast specimen Machining Surface preparation Final weight Test Initial weight Difference Wear Fig. 2. Step by step procedure used to evaluate the dry sliding wear of unreinforced alloy and composites. Table 3 Orthogonal array of Taguchi for wear Test Sliding speed, S (m/s) Load, L (N) Sliding distance, D (m) Wear SiCp, WR (mm 3 ) Wear graphitic, WR (mm 3 ) 1 1.53 9.81 500 1.08 0.8 2 1.53 9.81 1000 1.6 1.34 3 1.53 9.81 1500 2.01 1.8 4 1.53 19.6 500 1.6 1.44 5 1.53 19.6 1000 2.19 2.1 6 1.53 19.6 1500 3.0 2.8 7 1.53 39.2 500 1.55 1.4 8 1.53 39.2 1000 2.8 2.04 9 1.53 39.2 1500 3.8 3.41 10 3.06 9.81 500 0.82 0.6 11 3.06 9.81 1000 1.39 1.01 12 3.06 9.81 1500 1.98 1.6 13 3.06 19.6 500 1.06 0.91 14 3.06 19.6 1000 1.7 1.48 15 3.06 19.6 1500 2.1 1.8 16 3.06 39.2 500 1.4 1.00 17 3.06 39.2 1000 2.22 1.8 18 3.06 39.2 1500 2.62 2.2 19 4.59 9.81 500 0.77 0.6 20 4.59 9.81 1000 1.32 1.0 21 4.59 9.81 1500 2.21 2.06 22 4.59 19.6 500 1.52 1.34 23 4.59 19.6 1000 2.51 2.40 24 4.59 19.6 1500 3.46 3.2 25 4.59 39.2 500 1.33 1.10 26 4.59 39.2 1000 2.33 2.0 27 4.59 39.2 1500 3.96 3.3 Table 4 ANOVA for wear results (SiCp) Source of variances ss Df Variance Test F F p a (%) D 10.91 2 5.455 230.17 5.27 b 57.57 L 4.64 2 2.32 97.89 5.27 b 24.34 S 1.33 2 0.665 28.06 5.27 b 6.8 SXL 0.5 4 0.125 5.27 5.27 b 2.15 SXD 0.34 4 0.085 3.59 2.64 c 1.3 LXD 0.32 4 0.08 3.38 2.64 c 1.2 Pooled error 0.83 35 0.0237 6.64 Total 18.87 53 100 ss, sum of squares; Df, degree of freedom. a Percentage of contribution. b 99% condence level. c 95% condence level. Table 5 ANOVA for wear results (SiCpGr) Source of variances ss Df Variance Test F F p a (%) D 9.38 2 4.69 293.13 5.27 b 57.24 L 3.72 2 1.86 116.25 5.27 b 22.58 S 1.61 2 0.805 50.31 5.27 b 9.66 SXL 0.38 4 0.095 5.94 5.27 b 1.94 SXD 0.34 4 0.085 5.31 5.27 b 1.69 LXD 0.32 4 0.08 5.00 3.95 c 1.57 Pooled error 0.58 35 0.016 5.32 Total 53 100 ss, sum of squares; Df, degree of freedom. a Percentage of contribution. b 99% condence level. c 95% condence level. 1396 S. Basavarajappa et al. / Materials and Design 28 (2007) 13931398 ll the valley of the material both in pin and the counter face during the course of action and there is a possibility of fracturing a few asperities on both the surfaces leading to very ne debris. The stress on the surface of the SiCpGr composite pin is almost uniform and the contact between them is intact, such that more surface area is in contact. The wear resis- tance of the graphitic composite is more than that of Al/ SiCp composite. As the sliding distance increases the wear volume loss increases which can be attributed to the ploughing ability of the fractured particles between the pin and the counter face will not decrease with increasing the sliding distance [34,35]. The dry sliding wear volume loss increases with increasing load. The SiC particles are very strong in compression than the tension. This inu- ences the penetration ability of the fractured particles between the pin and the counter face. So the removal of material from the surface of the pin increases with increase in load [21]. The decreasing trend of the wear rate when sliding speed is increased is due to the formation of protec- tive mechanically mixed layer (MML) between the pin and the counter face [3335]. In Al/SiCpGr composites, the variation of inuence of factors on the wear volume loss follows the same trend as that of the Al/SiCp composite. Along with the protecting layer of MML forms between the sliding counterparts, graphite also smears and reduces overall wear volume loss of the composite at all tested range of parameters. 5. Conclusions Taguchis robust design method can be used to analyze the dry sliding wear problem of the metal matrix compos- ites as described in the paper. The following generalized conclusions can be drawn from the work. (A) The incorporation of graphite particles in the alumin- ium matrix as a secondary reinforcement increases the wear resistance of the material. The smearing of the graphite and formation of protecting layer between the pin and the counter face enables in reducing the wear volume loss. (B) Sliding distance is the wear factor that has the highest physical as well as statistical inuence on the wear of both composites. SiCp composite present a contribu- tion of sliding distance (57.57%), load (24.34%), and sliding speed (6.8%). 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