TITLE:
Dry Sliding Wear Behavior of Aluminum 6063 Composites Reinforced with TiB2 Particles
AUTHORS:
K. Krishnamurthy, Mengistu Ashebre, J. Venkatesh, B. Suresha
KEYWORDS:
TiB2 Reinforced Aluminum 6063, Hardness, Sliding Wear, Wear Rate, Wear Resistance
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering,
Vol.5 No.2,
March
31,
2017
ABSTRACT: The influence of titanium diboride (TiB2) loading on the dry sliding wear characteristics of aluminum 6063 matrix alloy-titanium diboride (Al/TiB2) composite materials has been assessed using a pin-on disc wear tester at different loads. The composites with 5 and 10 wt% of fine TiB2 particles were fabricated using stir casting technique. For comparison, as-cast of the base alloy were made under the same processing applied for Al/TiB2 composites. The hardness of the composite materials was measured using Brinell hardness tester. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to analyze the wear surfaces of samples. The results indicate that fine TiB2 particles markedly improved the wear performance of the aluminum 6063 matrix alloy. The coefficient of friction decreases with increase in the amount of TiB2, but this effect was more pronounced in dry sliding. Hardness of composites increased with increasing TiB2 loading. The wear rates increase with increase in load and dependent upon TiB2 loading in the base alloy. Among the composites tested, Al/TiB2 composites containing 10 wt% TiB2 exhibited superior wear resistance over the base alloy and 5 wt% Al/TiB2 composites. These observations were correlated in terms of the TiB2 loading in base alloy which resulted in the variations of the hardness.