Abrasive wear of Al‐SiC composites

The two‐ and three‐body abrasion of aluminium matrix composites, reinforced with silicon carbide particles, have been investigated. The metal matrix composites were fabricated by a powder metallurgy route involving a final hot extrusion step. Air atomised aluminium powder Al 1100 was used as matrix and α‐SiC_p as reinforcement with mean sizes of 10, 27 and 43 μm; in the proportions of 5, 10 and 20 vol.%. Using a pin‐on‐disc apparatus and a wet monolayer tester, two‐ and three‐body abrasion tests were carried out respectively against silicon carbide and alumina abrasives with four different grit sizes. The microstructural characterizations were performed using light microscopy. The dominant wear mechanisms were identified using scanning electron microscopy. The influence of type of the abrasive particles on wear resistance and dominating wear mechanisms was reported. Relationships between size and volume fraction of the SiC_p reinforcement and wear resistance were discussed. It was shown that SiC_p particles reinforcement increases the abrasion resistance against all the abrasives used. This increase was generally higher against alumina than against silicon carbide abrasives.