Theoretical and experimental investigation of wear characteristics of aluminum based metal matrix composites using RSM

The tribological properties such as wear rate, hardness of the aluminum-fly ash composite synthesized by stir casting were investigated by varying the weight % of fly ash from 5 to 20 with constant weight % of zinc and magnesium metal powder. A mathematical model was developed to predict the wear rate of aluminum metal matrix composites and the adequacy of the model was verified using analysis of variance. Scanning electron microscopy was used for the microstructure analysis which showed a uniform distribution of fly ash in the metal matrix. Energy — dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was used for the elemental analysis or chemical characterization of a sample. The results showed that addition of fly ash to aluminum based metal matrix improved both the mechanical and tribological properties of the composites. The fly ash particles improved the wear resistance of the metal matrix composites because the hardness of the samples taken increased as the fly ash content was increased.

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