Studies on characterization wear and machinability behaviour of coated carbon fibre and nanoclay reinforced hybrid aluminium metal matrix composite

Abstract

Replacing traditional components made of steel and cast iron with lightweight materials like aluminium alloys, magnesium alloys and high-strength steel, polymer composites and carbon fiber, 50% reduction in overall weight and fuel consumption can be achieved. newlineAmong the choice of lightweight materials, aluminum and magnesium alloys have better weight to strength ratios but exhibit considerable reduction in properties at lower temperatures and hence their application was limited. To overcome these problems, these alloys are reinforced with different materials such as fibers, whiskers, particulates thus forming metal matrix composites.In this research work, aluminum based mono-composite and hybrid composites were prepared using compocasting technique and the fabricated composite specimens were characterized by microstructural analysis, mechanical characterization, fatigue and corrosion strength and wear resistance behaviour. In compocasting, the reinforcing fibers/particles were added to the aluminium matrix in the semi-solid condition and was forced to flow into the die cavity for uniform reinforcement of carbon fibers. This research consists of three studies; in the first study the as received AA6026 was subjected to wear test for varying sliding speed, applied load and track diameter and the outputs wear loss, coefficient of friction and frictional force were analyzed using a hybrid approach of Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) combined with Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Experiments were design using Taguchi s Design of Experiments (DoE), newline newline