Wear behavior of Al6061 nanocomposite reinforced with nanozirconia

Abstract Despite of many excellent properties of Al6061 alloy based composite such as light weight, corrosion resistance, strength, machinability, workability, weldability etc., the application of Al6061 alloy based composite as compared to steel is less due to low wear resistance in sliding motion. Therefore, in the present study, wear behavior of stir cast Al6061 nanocomposite with addition of nanozirconia (0 wt − 9 wt%) was characterized in dry sliding condition on Pin on Disc Tribometer. Wear parameters were taken as suitable for ball bearing application. The specific wear rate of Al6061 nanocomposite was evaluated based on the experiments according to steady state experimental condition and Taguchi fractional orthogonal array with L16. Results showed that the variation in the specific wear rate was directly proportional to normal load and sliding speed but inversely varied with nanozirconia content. At higher sliding speed, sliding between the surfaces encountered more wear due to adhesion of localized removed particle on the surface. Taguchi orthogonal experimental results suggested that the best combination of factor contributing minimum specific wear rate was the factor combination of 9 wt% nanozirconia content, 55 N load, 2 m per second sliding speed and 2000 m sliding distance. ANOVA analysis proposed that the normal load was most influencing factor contributing specific wear rate of Al6061 nanocomposite followed by sliding speed, filler content and sliding distance.