INVESTIGATION OF ADHESIVE WEAR BEHAVIOUR OF ZIRCONIA REINFORCED ALUMINIUM METAL MATRIX COMPOSITE

Aluminium alloy reinforced with zirconia (10 wt%) was fabricated using stir casting technique and specimens with diameter 20 mm and 100 mm length were obtained. The adhesive wear test was done on the fabricated specimens using a pin-on-disc tribometer. Taguchi’s method was used for designing the number of experiments and L27 orthogonal array was developed for analysis of wear rate. Optimisation of parameters like applied load (15 N, 25 N, 35 N), sliding distance (500 m, 1250 m, 2000 m) and sliding velocity (1.5 m/s, 2.5 m/s, 3.5 m/s) was done using Signal-to-Noise ratio analysis and Analysis of Variance. “Smaller the better” criteria was considered as objective model to analyse the wear resistance of the composite. Results revealed that applied load (73.83%) has major influence on wear behaviour followed by sliding distance (10.08%) and sliding velocity (8.25%). Scanning Electron Microscope analysis was done on the worn surfaces of the composite specimens and severe delamination was observed at high load condition.