Wear Behaviour of Sintered Titanium-Diboride Reinforced Graphite Aluminium Composites
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International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 Vol. 3 Issue 3, March - 2014 Wear Behaviour Of Sintered Titanium-Diboride Reinforced Graphite Aluminium Composites. R. Balaji1, Dr. S. V. Suresh Babu2 Dr. Channankaiah3 1pg Scholar, Department Of Mechanical Engineering, 2&3professor, Department Of Mechanical Engineering, Adhiyamaan College Of Engineering Adhiyamaan College Of Engineering Hosur, India Hosur, India ages. Certainly the last 50 years have been associated with Abstract-The study of frictional forces of interacting surfaces, some remarkable developments in composite materials; known as tribology, plays a vital role in friction and some of which will be alluded to in various degrees of detail lubrication-dependent machining processes, but in any below. process where two surfaces come in contact. Using Graphite reinforcement in aluminium matrix composites has been A composite material is a material composed of two or reported to be beneficial in reducing wear due to its solid more constituents. The constituents are combined at a lubricant property, but results in reduction of strength. microscopic level and are not soluble in each other. The Adding Titanium diboride to aluminium matrix composites material holds the reinforcement to form the desired shape reinforced with graphite will improve both mechanical while the reinforcement improves the overall mechanical strength and wear resistance of composite and resulting in a properties of the matrix. When designed properly, the new hybrid composite. This work aims at the study of wear characteristics of Aluminium/Titanium -diboride/Graphite combined material exhibits better strength than would each hybrid composites fabricated using powder metallurgy individual material. The most primitive man-made technique. Sintered Aluminium matrix composites with composite materials are straw and mud combined to form Titanium diboride were developed for wear applications. bricks for building construction. In recent times there has Composites with base material of commercial aluminium of been a remarkable growth in the large scale production of 98% purity and 5wt% Graphite, containing various levels of fiber and fiber reinforced epoxy matrix composites because Titanium diboride (5 to 20 wt%) were developed from of their remarkable properties. [2, 3] elemental powders. Frictional wear tests were conducted using pin specimens against an EN steel disk using a pin–on–disk Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) have recently evoked wear testing apparatus. For the sake of comparison, a keen interest for their potential applications in cylinder experiments were also conducted on three different samplesIJERT IJERTliners, brake drums, crankshafts, and the aerospace and such as pure Aluminium, Aluminium with 5%Gr, and automotive industries because of their greater strength to Aluminium with 5%TiB2. Increasing the percentage addition weight ratios and high temperature resistances. At the of Titanium -diboride by sintering reduces the ductility of the composites gradually. The wear loss and frictional force of the present time, aluminium metal matrix composites Aluminium/ Titanium -diboride /Graphite was reduced by (AMMCs) have been well recognized and steadily improved adding 5 wt% Titanium -diboride and 5 wt% Graphite because of their advanced engineering properties, such as their improved wear resistance, low density, specific Key Words: Hybrid composite, sintering process, wear rate. strength and stiffness [8,9] At present, the main industrial processing routes I. INTRODUCTION available for the production of aluminium based particle The widely applied methods for the production of reinforced composites consist of casting, thixoforming, composite materials are based on casting techniques such as spray deposition and powder metallurgical processing. the squeeze casting of porous ceramic preforms with liquid Powder metallurgy methods are based on the classical metal alloys and powder metallurgy methods. The blending of matrix powders and reinforcing elements machining difficulties and processing costs related to (dispersion powders, platelets and ceramic fibers) and particle reinforced aluminium matrix composites have further cold pressing and sintering followed by plastic limited the application range of these advanced materials. working (forging, extrusion). In normal instances, in order The volatile material properties of aluminium based particle to increase the strength and ductility, fine reinforcements reinforced composites are increased stiffness, wear and a relatively large volume fraction are preferred. resistance, specific strength and vibration damping, and However, it is difficult to take advantage of both these decreased coefficient of thermal expansion compared with requirements because they are prone to cause an conventional aluminium alloys. [1] inhomogeneous distribution. Poor distribution of reinforcement degrades the composites in terms of its We tend to think of the latter half of the twentieth physical and mechanical properties and negates the century as the "Composite" age. In some ways this is attractiveness of reinforcement additions. [3, 4] realistic and gives us a feeling of continuity from former "material-based" ages such as the Stone, Bronze and Iron IJERTV3IS030395 www.ijert.org 280 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 Vol. 3 Issue 3, March - 2014 The powder metallurgy route to manufacturing metal B. FABRICATION PROCESS matrix composites offers advantages compared with ingot The fabrication process is done by mixing the pre metallurgy, stir-casting, and squeeze casting because of its weighted powders of aluminium graphite and titanium– low manufacturing temperature, which avoids strong diboride. Four different samples of composites were interfacial reactions, minimizing undesired reactions produced by keeping the graphite wt% as a constant value between the matrix and the reinforcement. An additional [8,9,25] of 5% and varying the wt% of TiB2 from 5 wt% to 20 advantage of powder metallurgy is the uniformity in the wt%. In addition to pure aluminium as a matrix material reinforcement distribution. This uniformity improves not which was produced by the same powder metallurgy only the structural properties but also the mechanical technique. Also two more samples formed reinforcing 5 strength as well as imparts high wear resistance. Based on wt% of Gr with aluminium and 5 wt% TiB2 with aluminium literature sources, studies on the tribological behaviour of separately. hybrid composite are very limited. However, most of the reported research focuses on the effect of either one or two Table 2.3 Details of Prepared Composite factors on the dry sliding wear behaviour of hybrid composites. [8] The conventional powder metallurgy route Wear Composition for making MMCs includes: 2N 4N 6N 1. Mixing and blending Al 74 91 96 2. Consolidation, e.g. hot pressing Al+5%TiB 67 77 79 3. Secondary processing e.g. extrusion, rolling 2 Wear resistant materials must possess high strength with Al+5%Gr 65 79 81 an adequate toughness and ductility at room and high Al+5%TiB2+5%Gr 56 60 67 temperatures. Such properties can be achieved through incorporation of hard dispersed particles into a ductile Al+10%TiB2+5%Gr 64 66 83 matrix. The two common approaches for wear resistance Al+15%TiB +5%Gr 67 70 87 characterization are the determining of material weight loss 2 and coefficient of friction. The weight loss was measured under different applied loads at constant sliding distance and sliding velocities. However, reported studies have indicated The pre weighted elemental powders are mixed and then that efforts are scarce on parametric studies on the poured into a die of 50.8mm diameter for compaction. tribological behaviour of aluminium matrix hybrid composites. Consequently, an attempt is made here to study the influence of % reinforcement (TiB2 particulates) andIJERT IJERT load, on constant sliding speed and sliding distance on the tribological behaviour of Al–TiB2–Gr hybrid composites. II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS A. MATERIALS Al-Gr-TiB2 composites required for investigation was prepared from the elemental powder materials using conventional powder processing techniques. Table 2.1 Chemical Composition of the Matrix Al Fig. 2.1 Pellets Formed From Elemental Powders Element Al Fe Mn Ti N Cu Si The compaction process was done with help of a universal testing machine by applying a load of 200kN gradually on the punch of the die set assembly containing powder. The powder mixtures were compacted to pellets as Content% 98 0.1 0.02 0.03 0.001 0.02 0.1 shown in Fig. 2.1 of 50.8mm diameter and 15mm thickness. The pellets are then sintered to a temperature of 5500C 0 gradually and hold on that temperature of 550 C for 1hour in muffle furnace. Then the sintered composite pellets were Table 2.1 gives the chemical composition of the base taken out from the furnace on the next day, dimensional material Al matrix used. The base materials Aluminium and changes were observed. Then the pellets are again cold graphite are mixed with TiB2 in grain size of 50 µm. pressed for 250kN with the same punch – die set [23, 24]. After second pressing the pellet was fine hybrid composite IJERTV3IS030395 www.ijert.org 281 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 Vol. 3 Issue 3, March - 2014 metal of 50.8mm diameter and 12mm thickness. These D. BRINELL HARDNESS pellets were then machined to respective specimens for