Tribological characteristics of aluminium matrix hybrid composites reinforced with SiC and Al2O3

Md AI Mehedi, K. M. H. Bhadhon and Prof. Dr. M.N. Haque, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Metal Matrix Composites (MMC) have become very popular for extensive physical, mechanical and tribological property. Among many, aluminium is the most used material due to its lightweight property which is reinforced with Al2O3, SiC, TiB2 to produce good tribological property for automotive and machine parts. In this study Al-3.73Mg alloy is reinforced with different ratios of hybrid particulate mixture of SiC and Al2O3 and the tribological property is investigated. The investigation reveals that with the increase of % volume SiC, the wear rate decreases in case of hybrid composite at different loads and sliding velocity. The wear mechanism was also investigated from the worn surface micrographs. 1. Introduction The use of MMC is increasing every year due to their better physical, mechanical and tribological properties. Many materials based on Al, Zn and Mg are extensively used in various industries due to their lightweight property (1, 2, 3). MMCs are generally manufactured with high strength and high modulus ceramic particles, whiskers or fibre reinforcement. The reinforcement improves the strength, stiffness and hardness with the expense of ductility. Aluminium alloys are generally used in automotive industries for their lightweight property (3). The use of ceramic particulates imparts high wear resistance to the aluminium alloy. Aluminium alloys are usually reinforced with particles, whiskers or fibres of Al2O3, SiC, TiB2 etc. These reinforcements increase the wear resistance and reduces coefficient of thermal expansion (1). Metal matrix composites are manufactured using different techniques. These techniques are liquid phase (casting) processes (4), vacuum infiltration (5), pressureless infiltration (6) and dispersion methods. Solid state processes are manufactured by powder metallurgy (PM). Liquid solid processes are manufactured by compocasting and stir casting. Stir casting is extensively used in the manufacture of particle MMC. The light weight of aluminium allows the production of high strength to weight ratio SiC and Al2O3 hybrid composite. In this case materials. The application of SiC or Al2O3 SiC will definitely work as harder phase than reinforced aluminium alloy composites in Al2O3 as SiC has hardness of 2,800 kg/mm2 aerospace and automotive industries has been relative to 1,400 kg/mm2 of Al2O3. Al2O3 has gradually increased for pistons cylinder. How- lower price than SiC, so investigation of this ever, much of the attention in wear studies has new hybrid composite can bring an economiconcentrated on the dry sliding wear behav- cal solution of the MMC in automotive and iour of MMC including various reinforcements aerospace uses. such as SiC and Al2O3 particles. In this study Al-Mg alloy is reinforced with The fact is that tribological properties are 6% particulate hybrid (Al2O3 and SiC) and the one that defines the possible application two different compositions are analysed with of material far more than their mechanical different ratios of SiC and Al2O3 (1:1 and 2:1). properties, since they are in better correlation The tribological property is investigated at difwith behaviour in practice. Numerous authors ferent ratios of hybrid composites. have investigated friction and wear properties of aluminium matrix composites (AMC) and 2. Experimental have analysed different influences: Matrix and the reinforcement material (7) 2.1 Materials: Pure aluminium ingot (> 99.5% Reinforcement type, size and % vol. (8, 9) Al) and magnesium ribbons were used to pro Variables like load, speed, temperature, duce the master alloy. This master alloy was atmosphere and distance (10, 11). used as the matrix of the composites. Alumina Al2O3 and SiC helps in resisting the surface (Al2O3) particles and silicon carbide (SiC) pardeformation in dry sliding condition with abra- ticles sizing 106 m were the reinforcement sive wear mechanism (12). Ramesh and his as- phase. These reinforcement phases were addsociates (13) stated that SiC reduced the wear ed in various proportion in order observe their rate of Cu, where the use of graphite increases effect on wear behaviour of the composites. the wear rate because of its softer particles. Na2.2 Master Alloy: The master alloy was proplocha and Granat (14) and Daoud et al. (15) duced by using pure aluminium ingot (> 99.5% suggested Al2O3 for better wear resistance. Al) and pure magnesium ribbons. Magnesium Al-Al2O3 composites having good mechanical ribbons were sized and weighted. Then these and tribological properties are used at crank ribbons were rapped with aluminium foils in bearings and motor blocks in order to improve wear resistance (16). The soft structure of aluminium has very low wear resistance, which makes it impossible to use in machine parts. Using hard phases like SiC or Al2O3 could impart hardness and wear resistance in aluminium or its alloy. But a very few studies investigate Fig. 1: Stir casting process of Al-Mg alloy with alumina and SiC particulate reinthe possibility of forcement

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order to minimise the loss of magnesium in form of magnesium oxide which forms due to high reactivity of the magnesium in contact with the air at high temperature. A pure aluminium block weighing 5,455 gm was melted in a crucible in a pit furnace. The temperature of the melt was raised to 750C. After that the magnesium ribbons rapped with aluminium foils were added gradually by using a stainless steel holder. As magnesium is very reactive the stainless steel holder was used to ensure that the magnesium ribbons does not come in contact with the air and burn away. Finally after adding all the magnesium ribbons, the molten alloy was poured into a permanent metallic mould. Afterwards the master alloy was analysed by optical emission microComposition Al Mg Fe Si Ni Ti Zn % 94.42 3.73 0.73 0.16 0.88 0.08 0.07

Fig. 2: Schematic diagram of pin on disc method of wear test (17)

all the test specimens. Two different parameters (Load and sliding speed) were selected and their effects were observed in two different composites. The weight loss of the wear specimens were calculated for three different loads (17.21 KN, 17.79 KN and 20.43 KN) at 2.54 m/s and for three different sliding speeds (1.89 m/s, 2.10 m/s and 2.54 m/s) at 17795.34 N. After that the worn surfaces were carefully analysed in a scanning electron microscope in order to determine the wear mechanism operating at the sliding interfaces. 3 Result and Discussion: 3.1 Effect of Sliding speed on mass loss (wear rate) From Fig. 3 it can be seen that the mass loss has increased as the sliding speed increased in all the specimens. But when the master alloy was reinforced the mass loss gradually decreased for sliding speed 1.89 m/s and 2.10

were conducted in air and dry sliding condition. The disk was of cast iron with hardness HRC 60. An arm was used to hold and load the pin specimen vertically on the cast iron disk. The arm can move freely in both vertical and horizontal direction. The wear specimens were prepared from the casted bars by using a Lathe machine. ASTM G99-05 wear specimen dimensions were followed in preparing

scope and it revealed the master alloy contain 3.73% magnesium. The following table states the chemical composition of master alloy: 2.3 Composites: The desired composites were synthesized by the stir casting method. At first the master alloy was cut into several pieces for two different composites. SiC and Al2O3 particle were mixed and added in two different ratios, 1:1 and 2:1 respectively (total 6% wt of master alloy). The particle mixtures were preheated at about 800C for 2 hours in order to improve its wettability. The master alloy was melted in a holding furnace and temperature was raised to about 720C. Then the previously mentioned preheated particle mixture for particular composite was gradually added into the molten alloy which was continuously stirred at 550 rpm (rotations per minute). The particle was added in the vortex which was produced due to stirring. Then after adding all the particle mixture, the stirring was continued for 4-5 minutes in order to get a homogeneous distribution of the reinforced powder mixture. Finally the composite was poured into two permanent metallic moulds at a pouring temperature of 625C. Permanent metallic moulds were used in order to minimise the porosities which are one of the main disadvantages in conventional sand moulds. 2.4 Wear test: Wear tests were conducted by using the Pin-on-disk method. All the tests

Fig. 3: Mass loss of the matrix and composites at 17.21 KN load at different sliding speeds

Fig. 4: Mass loss of the matrix and composites at 17.79 KN load and 2.54 m/s sliding speed

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m/s. Profound reduction of mass loss was observed in case of 2.54 m/s sliding speed. In this case mass loss went from 0.05 gm to 0.01 gm as reinforcement phase was introduced. Especially when the percentage of SiC in the powder mixture was increased, i.e. doubled the mass loss reduced drastically. This mass loss is equal to the same mass loss observed at lower sliding speed (2.10 m/s) for the same composite. This indicates that at higher sliding speed wear decreases very rapidly as the SiC

reduced the amount of mass loss during the dry sliding wear tests as shown in Fig. 4. An unreinforced Al-Mg alloy shows a mass loss of 0.02 gm. As this alloy was further reinfoeced with 1:1 alumina (Al2O3) and SiC particles mass loss decreased substantially by 0.01 gm. As the ratio of SiC particles in the powder mixture was increased it reduced the mass loss by reducing the wear rate at normal condition but not to the same extent as the previous case. This can be confirmed by the earlier

Fig. 5: Mass loss of the matrix and composites at 2.54 m/s sliding speeds at different loads

particles increase in the composite. SiC particles were found to be more wear resistant and have more effect on the sliding speed than the alumina (Al2O3) particles. During sliding at different speed under same load 17.79534 KN the ceramic reinforcement particles suppressed the operating wear mechanism and hence reduce mass loss. The ceramic reinforcement particles have more strength and hardness than the Al-Mg alloy matrix. As a result less wear occurred where the sliding interface encountered these hard ceramic particles in the composites. 3.2 Effect of reinforcement on mass loss (or wear rate) Reinforcement in the master alloy certainly

figure (Fig. 3) where profound effect of SiC particles were only observed at higher sliding speed (2.54 m/s). As the amount of reinforcements were same in both the cases, in normal condition their wear rate was also almost the same. The slight reduction observed was due to increase in the percentage of SiC in the reinforcement mixture because of the fact that hardness of SiC particles. Hardness of SiC particle is 2,800 kg/mm2 where Al2O3 has hardness of only 1,400 kg/mm2. Thus the hard SiC particle takes the load of the matrix phase as well the relatively soft powder phase(Al2O3) helps to reduce the stiffness. 3.3 Effect of load on mass loss (or wear rate) The effect of load on the wear rate of the sam-

ples was investigated by calculating the mass loss at same dry sliding speed (2.54 m/s). Fig. 5 reveals that the effect of load is almost reciprocal to that of the effect of sliding speed shown in Fig. 3. In each cases the mass loss decreased as reinforcement phases changed its ratio. Gradual reduction of mass loss was observed in between 17.79534 KN and 17.21616 KN load. But in 2:1 SiC and alumina (Al2O3) AMC specimens, the decrease in mass loss was very low compared to the other results. This indicates that at higher load further decrease in mass loss i.e. wear resistance increased remarkably. Mass loss of higher ratio of SiC content wear specimen has almost the equal value as the specimens from the 1:1 SiC and alumina (Al2O3) AMC. This is because of the fact that higher load causes the sliding interface to come more and more closer to each other and have better sliding contact. On the other hand with higher specific loads temperature at the sliding contact rises and thus plastic deformation occurs. As a result more friction occurs causing higher wear rate and mass loss. 3.4 Examination of worn surface In Fig. 6 three worn surfaces of composite under three different loads are examined with SEM. Fig. 6c reveals a parallel and continuous ploughing grooves on the worn surface of the composite material. The abrasion wear mechanism is observed with the case of low load in Fig. 6b and 6c. In these cases, there are some patches in the worn surface from where the materials were removed from the surface during the course of wear. The parallel grooves suggest abrasive wear as characterised by hard particles into the softer surface, which is the key concept of Al-Mg alloy-particulate composites. The grooves may be formed due to deposition of wear-hardened deposits in disc track. At high loads local deformation and fracture take place which is observed in Fig. 6a. At high loads it is impossible for the reinforcing particles to maintain the stability of protective layer under the ploughing action. Materials

a)

b)

c)

Fig. 6: SEM micrograph of worn surface of Al-Mg alloy composite (with 2:1 SiC: alumina reinforcement) at 2.54 m/s sliding speed at a)20.43 KN b)17.79 KN c)17.21 KN

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a)

b)

c)

Fig. 7: SEM micrograph of worn surface of Al-Mg alloy composite a) unreinforced, b) with 1:1 (SiC:Al2O3) reinforcement and c) with 2:1 (SiC:Al2O3) reinforcement at 17.19 KN load and 2.54 m/s sliding speed

removal is in the form of flake type debris. After the surface material is removed, the cracks get nearer to surface and then shear strain increased. This causes the surface removal by delamination process (18). The major mechanism at high load is delamination wear which causes excessive fracture of the reinforcements and the matrix. From Fig. 7 we see that abrasive wear take place with unreinforced alloy where parallel grooves continuly dominates the wear process. The proughing grooves in Fig. 7 a and in some extent Fig. 7b shows the plastic deformaion with no or less reinforcemnt with SiC. But after the reinforcemnt with hard SiC is incresed, the delamination process replaces ploughing and thus subsurface fracture dominates in composites with high SiC than Al2O3. 4. Conclusion Effects of reinforcement with SiC and Al2O3 on the tribological property of Al-Mg alloy under dry sliding condition have been investigated. The composites with different ratios of hybrid particulates were prepared with stir casting method. It was found that with the increase in SiC particle in reinforced alloy, the wear resistance is increased. In the same way, reinforced alloy has higher wear resistance than unreinforced one. The increase of load reduces the wear and increase of sliding velocity increases the wear rate. The topographical image of worn surface of composites concludes that the predominant wear mechanism is abrasion and delamination.The increase in load moves the wear mechanism from abrasion to subsur-

face crack and delamination. References

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Authors
Md AI Mehedi1 and K. M. H. Bhadhon2 are Deans award winner undergraduate students of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh. Prof. Dr. M.N. Haque3 is the current Dean of Engineering Faculty and former head of the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh Contact: 1aminulmehedi_mse.buet@yahoo.com, 2 3 tweetymarv@yahoo.com, nhaque@mme.buet. ac.bd

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