The sliding wear behavior of Al6061–garnet particulate composites

An attempt has been made to investigate the tribological behavior of Al6061–garnet particulate reinforced composites prepared by liquid metallurgical technique. A pin on disc wear testing machine was used to carry out the tribological tests on both composites and matrix alloy over a load range of 10–50 N and sliding velocities of 1.25–3.05 m/s for various sliding distances of 0.5–3 km. A theoretical model was developed for estimating the sliding wear-rate taking into consideration the effect of frictional heat on the wear properties at contact surfaces, the effect of reinforcement, mechanical-load, sliding distance, sliding velocities on wear-rates, coefficient of friction, and transition wear. An addition of garnet particulate to Al6061 showed that it not only delays the transition wear but also reduces the wear-rate and coefficient of friction. The SEM and EDS analyses were undertaken to clarify the effect of garnet particles on the wear mechanism for each condition.