FABRICATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF WEAR PARAMETERS ON AL 2024-GR-B4C HYBRID MMCS

In this experimental work, hybrid metal matrix composites by using Al2024 as a matrix and was added with two types of reinforcements in which one is fixed amount of Gr (3%) and the other is varying amount of B4C (3, 6 & 9%). The composites were fabricated by using powder metallurgy technique. The effect of wear rate on the fabricated Al/B4C/Gr hybrid MMCs by choosing wear parameters such as % of composition (3,6 and 9%), Load (10, 20 and 30N), sliding distance (100,200 and 300m) and sliding velocity (1, 2, 3 m/sec) was investigated by conducting a test on Pin on Disc wear testing machine. Wear rate was calculated for the set of combinations with all the four parameters which were obtained from Taguchi optimization technique in MINITAB17 software. Taguchi L27 orthogonal array was used for the experimental plan. Micro structural and FESEM analysis shows the presence and uniform distribution of reinforcement particles in aluminium matrix. ANOVA results show the percentage contribution of every parameter during the wear test. These results revealed that the sliding distance(64.87%) is the major parameter which affects the % contribution during wear test then the sequence of other parameters are Load (16.13%) , % of reinforcement(10.42%) and sliding velocity(5.15%).