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Dry Sliding Friction and Wear Behavior of AA7075-Si3N4 Composite

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Abstract

The present investigation is aimed at identifying the influence of Si3N4 reinforcement on the mechanical and tribological behavior of AA7075-Si3N4 composite. Five different composites of AA7075 aluminum alloy reinforced by silicon nitride particles have been fabricated by the stir casting route. The percentage of silicon nitride was varied from 0-8 wt%. The cast composites were tested for hardness, density and compression strength. Unidirectional friction and wear testing was carried out for all compositions under five different loading conditions (10 N, 20 N, 30 N, 40 N and 50 N) at a constant sliding speed of 1 m/s. SEM and EDS analysis was also carried out for worn surface analysis and elemental analysis of the composites. The hardness and compression strength of the composites exhibited an increasing trend with an increase in wt% of reinforcement in the base alloy, showing 20% improvement in hardness and around 50% improvement in compression strength for 8 wt% Si3N4 addition. The addition of Si3N4 particles led to an improvement in the wear resistance by 37% at low loads (10 N) and 61% at higher loads (50 N). The COF for all varied compositions at low load (10 N) and high load (50 N) ranges from 0.10 to 0.20 and 0.25 to 0.30 respectively. Moreover, the COF is observed to increase until 4 wt% and beyond it decreases. Microscopic studies of worn surfaces revealed a dominance of delamination wear at lower concentrations (0 wt% and 2 wt%) and ploughing at higher concentrations (6 wt% and 8 wt%). The developed composites exhibited better mechanical and anti-wear properties and could serve as potential candidates in sliding applications such as bearings, brake drums, gears, sprockets and brake rotors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the help rendered by the staff of Central Workshop SMVDU. Moreover the financial assistance offered by SMVD University for carrying out the testing is also acknowledged. The authors would also like to thank SAI Labs Patiala, Punjab, India for extending their testing facility (SEM and EDS) in carrying out the testing.

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, Jammu and Kashmir, 182320, India

    Mir Irfan Ul Haq & Ankush Anand

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  1. Mir Irfan Ul Haq
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  2. Ankush Anand
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Correspondence to Ankush Anand.

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Ul Haq, M.I., Anand, A. Dry Sliding Friction and Wear Behavior of AA7075-Si3N4 Composite. Silicon 10, 1819–1829 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-017-9675-1

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