A Review on Tribological Behaviors of

Stir Cast Aluminum Matrix Composites

PROJECT GUIDE
PRESENTED BY
Mr. M.Karthikeyan M.E.,
Monisha M
Assistant Professor,
Renuga Devi K
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Final year Mechanical Engineering
AAACET, Sivakasi
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 CONTENTS

 INTRODUCTION TO COMPOSITES.

 CLASSIFICATION OF COMPOSITES.
 FABRICATION OF COMPOSITES.
 STIR CASTING TECHNIQUE.

 WEAR MECHANISM.

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 COMPOSITES

Composite material is a material composed of two or more

distinct phases(matrix phase and dispersed phase) which are
chemically & physically different.

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CLASSIFICATION BASED ON REINFORCEMENT

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 CLASSIFICATION BASED ON MATRIX

 METAL MATRIX COMPOSITES.

 POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITES.

 CERAMIC MATRIX COMPOSITES.
 CARBON - CARBON COMPOSITES.

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 METAL MATRIX COMPOSITES

COMMONLY USED MATRIX MATERIAL FOR MMC.

 Aluminium.
 Copper.
 Magnesium.
 Titanium

COMMONLY USED REINFORCEMENT MATERIAL FOR MMC.

 Graphite.
 Silicon carbide.
 Aluminum oxide.
 Tungsten carbide.
 Boron carbide.

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 ADVANTAGES OF MMC
Compared to monolithic metals, MMCs have:
 Higher strength-to-density ratios

 Higher stiffness-to-density ratios

 Better fatigue resistance
 Better elevated temperature properties

 Lower coefficients of thermal expansion

 Better wear resistance.

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 APPLICATION OF MMC

• Space Shuttle,
• Commercial Airliners,
• Electronic Substrates,
• Bicycles,

• Automobiles,
• Golf Clubs,

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 MMC - MANUFACTURING METHODS

1. Casting. 2. Diffusion Bonding.

3. Powder-metallurgy 4. Liquid Infiltration. 5. Deposition.

Technique

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STIR CASTING – REVIEW

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 STIR CASTING – REVIEW Contd.,

• The crucible, stirrer, permanent mold, and skimmer are coated with
coatings that have water as carrier and vermiculite and refractory
pigments as concentrates.
• The coating prevents the reaction between the melt and the metallic
components that come into contact with the melt.
• The coated components are heated to 180 °C to evaporate the carrier
(water) after coating.

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 STIR CASTING – REVIEW Contd.,

 Argon gas is supplied continuously to the crucible to prevent

the reaction of matrix material with the atmospheric air.

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 STIR CASTING – REVIEW Contd.,

• 1 wt. % of magnesium (Mg) is added to the melt in the form

of Al–Mg master alloy to enhance the wettability of the
reinforcement particles with the matrix material.

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 STIR CASTING – REVIEW Contd.,

• Hydrogen has significant solubility in molten aluminum, and

high concentration of hydrogen causes porosity defects in the
cast specimen.
• Hexachloroethane (C2Cl6) tablets are used to remove
hydrogen from the melt.

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 STIR CASTING – REVIEW Contd.,

 Granular cleaning flux is then added into the melt to remove

the other non-metallic inclusions and oxides from the melt.
The melt surface is then skimmed by using a skimmer.

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 TRIBOLOGY

TRIBOL
OGY

LUBRICAT
ION

WEAR FRICTION

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 Sandeep Sharmaa et al [2017]
Dry Sliding Wear Behaviour of Sillimanite Reinforced
Aluminium Matrix Composites
Matrix LM30 Aluminium alloy
Reinforcement Sillimanite (Al2SiO5)

Processing Method Stir casting

Characterization X-ray diffraction analysis
EDX
Testing Tribotests 17
 Specimen Preparation

Weight percentage of Designation of Single particle size

sillimanite in AMCs (wt%) reinforced AMCs with sillimanite size as
Coarse Medium Fine
(75–106 μm) (32–50 μm) (1–20 μm)
3.0 3SPS-C 3SPS-M 3SPS-F
6.0 6SPS-C 6SPS-M 6SPS-F
9.0 9SPS-C 9SPS-M 9SPS-F
12.0 12SPS-C 12SPS-M 12SPS-F
15.0 15SPS-C 15SPS-M 15SPS-F

18.0 18SPS-C 18SPS-M 18SPS-F

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 XRD patterns of LM30 alloy

The above figure shows the peaks of aluminium and silicon present in
the base alloy. 19
XRD patterns of 15SPS-C composite

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 The presence of sillimanite along with aluminium and silicon
can be observed in 15SPS-C composite.
 Apart from these phases, aluminium silicate (Al2Si4O10) was
also observed in the composite.
 Aluminium silicate might have formed at the particle-matrix
interface because of the reaction of sillimanite and LM30
alloy during casting.

21
Wear rate behaviour (volume loss per sliding distance) of
base alloy with respect to sliding distance (0–3000 m)
under different applied load conditions (1–5 kg)

22
Wear rate against the sliding distance at different applied
loads for the sillimanite reinforced composite 15SPS-C

23
Wear rate against the sliding distance at different applied
loads for the sillimanite reinforced composites15SPS-M

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Wear rate against the sliding distance at different applied
loads for the sillimanite reinforced composites 15SPS-F.

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 Run in wear zone [first sub zone]

 During the initial period of run the two sliding counter

surfaces (i.e. pin and disc) have asperity-to-asperity contact.
 These asperities are quiet sharp and are in relative motion
against each other.
 The greater thereby causing micro cutting and micro plowing
action.

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Introduction to Run in wear zone and Steady state wear
zone

 For any given loading condition, the wear rate behaviour (of
base alloy and various AMCs) with respect to sliding distance
observed can be divided into two distinct zones viz. an initial
run-in-wear zone indicating a sharp change in wear rate with
respect to sliding distance (0–2000 m) followed by a steady-
state-wear zone indicating a constant wear rate over sliding
distance (2000–3000 m).

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 Run in wear zone

 The run-in-wear zone indicated the unstable nature of wear

and this zone further comprised of two different sub-zones.
The first sub-zone extended till 500 m and showed an increase
in wear rate with increase in sliding distance. The second sub-
zone (500–2000 m) showed decrease in wear rate with
increase in sliding distance.

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 Run in wear zone [first sub zone]

 The asperities start acting as stress concentration points, get

plastically deformed, and in the process some very sharp
asperities get fractured (thus, increasing the wear rate) under
the combined action of normal stress, shear stress, and sliding
speed.
 Also, during this initial part of run-in-wear zone (0–500 m), the
high frictional resistance between counter surfaces results in
increase in temperature at the contact of pin and disc.

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 Run in wear zone [first sub zone]

 This rise in temperature causes mechanical welding of pin

with disc resulting in plastic deformation of pins and hence
higher wear rates .
 Thus, increase in wear rate was observed till a sliding distance
of 500 m, mainly due to fragmentation of asperities and
mechanical welding of pin with disc.

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 Run in wear zone [second sub zone]

 In the second sub-zone of run-in wear period (500–2000 m),

the debris formed due to wear of pin and disc materials start
aligning along the sliding direction in the wear tracks.
 With increase in sliding distance, the valleys of the counter
surfaces get occupied with wear debris resulting in the
compaction and continuous grinding of wear debris which
reduces the sharpness of debris.

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 Run in wear zone [second sub zone]

 As a result, the abrasive action of counter surface asperities

decrease, leading to reduction in wear rate . Also in this second
sub-zone, with increase in sliding distance, the interface
temperature rises beyond a critical value, thus resulting in surface
oxidation of the specimen (i.e. formation of oxide film on pin
surface). The oxide layer on pin surface acts as a protective layer
and does not allow metal to metal contact, thereby reducing the
effective wear rate.

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 Steady state wear zone

 Next, for the steady-state-wear zone (2000–3000 m), increase

in sliding distance leads to further fragmentation and

compaction of wear debris, counter surface materials, and the

oxide layer.

 This compaction resulted in formation of a mechanical mixed

layer (MML) which protects the specimen surface from further

wear.

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 Steady state wear zone

 However, increase in sliding distance (2000–3000 m) also causes

subsurface softening due to rise in temperature. The result is that the

newly formed MML gets fractured and subsequently removed from

the specimen surface. In the steady-state-wear zone, the formation and

removal of MML occurs simultaneously with rate of formation/growth

of MML being equal to its rate of removal. Thus, the wear rate

remains almost constant, with increase in sliding distance in this zone.

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Bar graph representation of wear rate as a function of
applied load - COARSE

35
Bar graph representation of wear rate as a function of
applied load - MEDIUM

36
Bar graph representation of wear rate as a function of
applied load - FINE

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 Load As A Factor….

 It can be observed that the wear rate of LM30 base alloy and various

composites increased with the increase in applied load from 1 to 5 kg .

 This was because the higher loads increase the frictional resistance

between counter surfaces causing increase in interface temperature.

 The rise in temperature causes softening of material and hence

increase in wear rate.

 At higher loads, the hard oxide protective layer formed on pins during

wear test becomes unstable.

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 Load As A Factor….Contd.,

It fractures and exposes the substrate materials (both, pin and disc).

Consequently, small regions of substrate materials come into contact

and get welded together, thereby increasing the wear rate.

Also, at higher loads, plastic deformation of substrate materials lead

to subsurface crack initiation and increase in adhesive nature of pin

with disc, thereby increasing the wear rate .

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 Reinforcement Level As A Factor….Contd.,

 Further, it was observed that for a given particle size

reinforcement, wear rate decreases with increase in

reinforcement level (wt%).

 The wear rate decreased significantly with increase in

reinforcement level till 15 wt%.

 This was attributed to the fact that the hard reinforced particles

resist the grinding action of abrasive and protect the surface of

composite against wear, thus reducing the wear rate. 40

 Reinforcement Level As A Factor….Contd.,

 Also, addition of higher wt% of reinforcement increases the

hardness of the composites and hence decreases the wear rate.
 However, beyond this reinforcement level (i.e. 18 wt%), an
increase in wear rate was observed.
 This deterioration in wear behavior at 18 wt% level, was
attributed to agglomeration of sillimanite particles at this high
concentration resulting in their poor bonding with the matrix
and hence increased wear rate.

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 Reinforcement Particle Size As A Factor….Contd.,

Further, it was observed that for a given reinforcement level, wear

rate decreased with decrease in size of reinforced particles.

For this reason 15SPS-F showed better wear behavior than

15SPS-M and 15SPS-C composites at all applied loads.

This was attributed to the fact that composites reinforced with

finer particle size offer higher number of barriers per unit volume

compared to composites reinforced with relatively coarser particle

size. 42
 Improvement in maximum wear rate of AMCs over the
base alloy.

S. No. Type of AMC Maximum improvement w.r.t. base alloy (%)

1. 15SPS-C 44

2. 15SPS-M 46

3. 15SPS-F 55

The above table shows the improvement in maximum wear rate

achieved for 15 wt% SPS composites.
The maximum improvement of 55% over the base alloy was observed
for the composites reinforced with 15 wt% fine sized sillimanite
particles.
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 Wear track and debris analysis

 15SPS-F composite showed the maximum improvement in

wear resistance (w.r.t. sliding distance) under all loading
conditions.
 For this composite formulation, the wear track and debris
analysis was conducted under the extreme loading conditions
(1 kg and 5 kg respectively) to understand the wear
mechanism and wear behaviour involved under different
applied loads.

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Wear tracks of 15SPS-F composite observed under applied
load conditions of 1 kg

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 .For the low load condition, narrow grooves running parallel
to the sliding direction and some delaminated area were
observed on the worn out pin surface.

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Wear tracks of 15SPS-F composite observed under applied
load conditions of 5 kg

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 For the higher loading condition of 5 kg, wider grooves with
larger delaminated area (both parallel to the sliding direction)
on the worn out pin surface were observed.

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Debris collected after the wear test of 15SPS-F composite
under applied load conditions of 1 kg

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 For the low load condition, flake type debris were observed
with grooves visible on some debris.
 During the wear test at low load conditions, material removal
was in the form of small pieces resulting in formation of flake
type debris.
 Grooves visible on the debris were due to microploughing
action and indicated abrasive nature of wear in the initial
stages.

50
Debris collected after the wear test of 15SPS-F composite
under applied load conditions of 5 kg

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 For the high load condition, in addition to these features, some

additional features like corrugated debris, micro-cracks in debris,

fractured debris, thread type debris, and molten debris were also

observed.

 Several micro-cracks were observed resulting in removal of material

by delamination.

 This indicated that the initial abrasive wear mechanism (mainly

because of microploughing action) was followed by adhesive wear

mechanism (due to formation of micro-cracks leading to

delamination).
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 Twisted and layered debris (corrugated structured debris)

were also visible which indicated repetitive nature of stress

due to continuous rubbing action occurring under high load

sliding conditions.

 Thread type debris were also observed indicating pull out of

ductile material from the pin surface at higher load .

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Debris collected after the wear test of 15SPS-F composite
under applied load conditions of 5 kg

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 Also, fracturing of debris was observed.

 Fracturing of debris occurred due to entrapment of debris

between the specimen and counter surface.

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Debris collected after the wear test of 15SPS-F composite
under applied load conditions of 5 kg

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 Further, high contact pressure under high load conditions led
to localized melting resulting in appearance of molten debris.

57
EDS analysis of wear tracks of 15SPS-F composite at 1 kg
load

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 At 1 kg load, the surface largely consisted of aluminium,
silicon, and oxygen.
 This showed that at low loads, the oxides formed were mainly
of the matrix material.

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EDS analysis of wear tracks of 15SPS-F composite at 5 kg
load

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 However, at high loads (5 kg) iron was also observed in
addition to aluminium, silicon, and oxygen.

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EDS analysis of wear debris of 15SPS-F composite at 1 kg
load

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 For the low load conditions, EDS confirmed the presence of
oxides which were mainly of aluminium (due to wear of only
pin surface).

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EDS analysis of wear debris of 15SPS-F composite at 5 kg
load.

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 However, at high loading conditions, the oxides of iron were also

formed (due to wear of steel disc surface also) in addition to oxides of

aluminium .

 For these reasons, at low loads, the wear in the present AMC system

can be referred to as mild wear (mainly abrasive nature of wear).

 However, for high applied load conditions, the wear can be referred to

as sever wear due to formation of oxide-rich layer comprising of iron

oxide and aluminium oxide (mainly adhesive nature of wear).

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 Conclusion
• Generally the harder material scratches the softer material sometimes which
help us to achieve our requirements such as grinding, cutting and machining
etc.,

• Sometimes it leads the problem also in the way of wear, cracks and tear etc.,

• These causes affects our ease of utilize when we use metals, our applications
such as automobile, spacecraft components, aeronautical and land space
communications etc.,

• Instant of it, if we use metal matrix composites, it increases the functional

properties.

• Still the fabrication of MMC is limited by the difficult manufacturing

process.
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and Reinforcement Sizes on the Microstructure, the Physical and
Mechanical Properties of Al-SiC Composites, vol. 139, 2017, pp. 1–7

• M. Naveen, A.R.A. Khan, Ultimate Tensile Strength of Heat Treated

Hybrid Metal Matrix Composites, vol. 4, 2015, pp. 146–151.

67
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