WEAR behaviour of nano fly ash reinforced aluminium-10 Magnesium alloy matrix composites

Abstract

The micro sized fly ash material is subjected to high energy ball milling and converted into nano structured material. The nano structured fly ash has been characterized for its structure by X-ray diffraction studies. The crystallite size was reduced from 47.1 nanometers to 27 nanometers during 30 hours of ball milling. By using stir casting method, composites were fabricated and experiments were conducted under laboratory condition to assess the wear characteristics of Aluminium-10% Magnesium alloy matrix with 5 wt%, 10 wt% and 15 wt% fly ash (nano structured) composites under different working conditions in pure sliding mode on a pin-on-disc machine. The wear rate of the composites was decreased with 5 wt% and 10 wt% nano fly ash reinforcement and beyond 10%, the wear rate was increased due to clustering of fly ash particles and poor interfacial bonding between the matrix and fly ash particles. The increased frictional thrust at higher load results in increased debonding and caused easy removal of material and hence the wear rate is increased with increase in normal load. The coefficient of friction in all cases is decreased with the increase of normal load.