Wear testing of in situ cast AA8011-TiB2 metal matrix composites

Abstract

Abstract An aluminum alloy 8011 was reinforced with varying weight percentages of TiB2 using an in situ stir casting technique by adding inorganic halide salts of K2TiF6 and KBF4 in molten AA8011 matrix alloy. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were performed on the cast materials to confirm the presence and distribution of the reinforcements in the composite materials. To investigate the wear behavior of the cast materials, pin on disc wear testing was carried out at varied levels of sliding distance, amount of reinforcement, temperature, load and sliding velocity based on Taguchi's L18 orthogonal array with wear rate as the response. AA 8011 with a reinforcement of 4 wt.-%, 1500 m sliding distance, at a temperature of 100 °C, load 10 N and sliding velocity 2 m × s−1 provided the best wear resistance. The significance and influence of factors on wear rate were analyzed by an analysis of the variance.