The Effects of TiC Reinforcement on Thermal, Electrical and Dry Sliding Wear Behaviour of Aluminium Matrix Nanocomposites

The present work is to investigate the thermal, electrical & dry sliding wear behaviour of aaluminium matrix composite reinforced with dissimilar particle size (≤ 200 nm and 2 μm) of titanium carbide particles. An aluminium matrix composite with 0, 5, 10 and 15 vol.%TiC reinforcement was prepared by using powder metallurgy. A pin-on-disc apparatus was broadly used to investigate the wear behavior of the Al/TiCnano composites. Wear test was carried out for normal load of 5 N,10 N, 15 N& 20N at constant sliding velocity of 2.61 m/s at room temperature. The variations of the coefficient of friction (COF) & specific wear rate (SWR) with the varying sliding distances (1000 m, 1200 m, 1400 m and 1600 m) for variable load were plotted and analyzed. Find out the thermal property of Al-TiC composite by using Thermogravimetry (TG) / Differential scanning calorometry (DSC). To study the dominant sliding, wear mechanism was analyzed for various test condition, while the worn surface was investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the respective polynomial & power law model was developed using curve fitting technique. Further, it was found that the SWR is to increase with the load & sliding distances. Hardness & electrical conductivity of composites have been varied based on particle size variation of TiC.