Tribological Behaviour of Aluminum Silicon Carbide Functionally Graded Material

Al based Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are appropriate for wider range of applications in various sectors such as structural, aircraft and automotive industries. They are highly conductive, ductile, light in weight and have high strength to weight ratio. In this research, the tribological behavior of Al–X wt.% SiC (X = 0,3,7 and 10) functionally graded composites are fabricated using powder metallurgy (PM) route. All specimens were prepared by blending, pressing and sintering methodology. The sintered specimens are characterized by optical microscope and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Properties such as hardness, wear/wear volume loss and coefficient of friction are measured. The wear tests are carried out using a pin-on-disc setup. Coefficient of friction (COF) and wear volume loss (WVL) are measured by sliding the pin specimens on to a grey cast iron counter disc rotating at a constant speed of 500 rpm. Synthetic hard ceramic particulates are incorporated in the aluminum matrix to accomplish reduction in both wear and coefficient of friction. The experimental results reveal that the hardness of the composite increased by increasing the SiC wt.%, on the other hand, low wear volume loss and lower coefficient of friction values are noticed.