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Synergic effect of reinforcement and heat treatment on the two body abrasive
wear of an AlSi alloy under varying loads and abrasive sizes
S. Das , D.P. Mondal, S. Sawla, N. Ramakrishnan
Regional Research Laboratory (CSIR), Bhopal 462026, India
Received 18 January 2006; received in revised form 19 January 2007; accepted 24 January 2007
Available online 27 February 2007
Abstract
In the present study, an attempt was made to examine the synergic effect of SiC particle reinforcement and heat treatment on the two body
abrasive wear behavior of an AlSi alloy (BS: LM13) under varying loads and abrasive sizes. Silicon carbide particles with size 5080 m were
reinforced in AlSi alloy, in varying concentration (10 wt% and 15 wt%), by solidification process (vortex technique) and the composite melt was
solidified by gravity casting in a cast iron die. The alloy and composites were solution treated at 495 C for 8 h, quenched in water and aged at
175 C for 6 h and cooled in air. Two body abrasive wear behaviour of cast and heat-treated alloy and composite, was examined against abrasives of
different sizes (40 m, 60 m and 80 m), at varying applied loads (1 N, 3 N, 5 N and 7 N), up to a sliding distance of 108 m. It has been noted that
the alloy suffers from higher wear rate than that of composites either in cast or heat-treated conditions, irrespective of applied load and abrasive
size. Further, in most of the cases, the wear rate of composite decreases with increase in SiC particle content. Efforts were made to correlate wear
behavior of Al alloy and composites in terms of mechanical properties, microstructural characteristics, applied load and abrasive size through an
empirical equation.
2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Al alloy; Al alloy composites; Abrasive wear; Heat treatment; Abrasive size
1. Introduction
Al-alloy matrix composites (AMCs) containing hard dispersoids are gaining immense industrial importance because of
their excellent combination of physical, mechanical and tribological properties over base alloys [1]. These include high
wear and seizure resistance, high specific strength and stiffness,
improved high temperature strength, controlled thermal expansion coefficient and high damping capacity [18]. It is reported
that Al-alloy reinforced with 10 wt% SiC particle composite
provides comparable mechanical properties but better thermal
conductivity and specific heat than the cast irons [5,7]. As a
result, frictional heating of these composites are noted to be significantly less than that of cast irons [7]. This leads to the use of
these composites in several automobile and engineering components where wear, tear and seizure are the major problems in
addition to the weight saving. Some of these components are
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 755 2488562; fax: +91 755 2587042.
E-mail address: sdas88@hotmail.com (S. Das).
0043-1648/$ see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wear.2007.01.039
48
and applied load [19,21,24,28]. According to these investigators, above a critical value of load and abrasive size, AMCs
exhibit higher wear rate than the alloys [2430]. Under such
circumstances, the depth and width of wear track become larger
than the size of dispersoid (i.e., h/d and/or w/d is greater than
unity; where h and w are the average depth and width of wear
groove, respectively, and d is the average diameter of the reinforcing phase in the composite). This leads to the scooping off
of the dispersoid from the surface of the composites samples
[19,21,24]. Furthermore, it is evident from the literature that
the wearing surface and the subsurface undergo plastic deformation, and this deformation becomes more severe when the
abrasive size is coarser and the applied load is higher [20,29].
As a result of such plastic deformation, the hard ceramic dispersoid gets fractured and fragmented into finer ones, and/or
debonded from the matrix [2329]. In due course, these fragmented particles come out from the specimen surface. Thus the
abrasive wear behavior of composite depends on the material
characteristics like shape, size, distribution and volume fraction
of the dispersoids and experimental parameters like applied load
and abrasive size [2131].
It has been reported that the wear resistance of composite
increases with increase in volume fraction and size of the dispersoids [2429]. One of the prime factors of the improvement
in wear resistance is increased in hardness of the Al-alloy due to
the addition of hard dispersoids [2431] and more protection of
the matrix from the destructive action of the abrasive as the mean
free path between the SiC particles is reduced with increase in
volume fraction of SiC particle [32]. Several investigators have
also proposed that wear resistance of a material not only depends
on its hardness and strength but also on its ductility and toughness [33,34]. The reinforcement of Al2 O3 particles in aluminum
alloy enhances the abrasive wear of the matrix. The reinforcement of 16 m Al2 O3 particle strengthens the aluminum matrix
and enhances the wear resistance. However, the reinforcement of
coarse particle (66 m) shows higher wear resistance. The operating wear mechanism is mainly consists of plastic deformation
of the matrix material [35].
The hardness as well as toughness of a composite material depends significantly on the matrix microstructure, size and
distribution of the dispersoids and the interfacial bonding characteristics [32]. The hardness of the composite increases with
increase in the volume fraction of the dispersoid but at the same
time its toughness decreases. Additionally, the casting defects
may increase or the possibility of clustering of dispersoid particle may be more as one increases the dispersoid content. These
may reduce the wear resistance of the composite [30]. Thus
the overall improvement in wear resistance of the alloy, due
to addition of more dispersoid may not be so high especially
at severe wearing conditions (i.e., at higher applied load and
coarser abrasive size).
The mechanical and tribological properties of the composite also depend upon the matrix microstructure; hence, the
properties of composite can be improved by heat treatment.
During heat treatment, the matrix of composite behaves almost
similar to that of the base alloy and the dispersoid remains
unchanged. Attempts have been made to improve strength, hard-
49
Fig. 2. (a) Microstructure of AlSi (LM13) alloy (A: aluminum, B: silicon). (b) A higher magnification micrograph of (a) clearly depicts needle shaped eutectic
Si in Al matrix (B: silicon needle). (c) Typical microstructure of heat-treated AlSi (LM13) alloy showing near spherical Si particle in Al matrix. (d) A higher
magnification micrograph showing the spherical shaped eutectic Si (marked A) and intermetallic phases (arrow marked).
50
Fig. 3. (a) Microstructure of Al10 wt% SiC composite in cast condition showing distribution of SiC particle in Al matrix. (b) A higher magnification micrograph
of (a) exhibits interface bonding between SiC particle and Al matrix (A: SiC particle; B: AlSi alloy; C: eutectic silicon; D: Al/SiC interface). (c) Microstructure
of cast Al15 wt% SiC composite showing distribution of SiC particle in Al matrix. (d) Microstructure of heat-treated Al15 wt% SiC composite shows interface
bonding between SiC particle and Al matrix.
51
Table 1
Mechanical properties of as cast and heat-treated Al alloy and composites
Material
Processing condition
Hardness (MPa)
UTS (MPa)
Elongation (%)
LM13
As cast
Heat-treated
132
146
180
210
1.0
3.0
As cast
Heat-treated
151
155
210
220
1.0
1.0
As cast
Heat-treated
159
173
220
230
1.0
1.0
52
Fig. 9. Wear rate of Al alloy and composite as a function of abrasive size (applied
load: 5 N).
the cases the wear rate is almost invariant to the abrasive size
irrespective of the materials, when the abrasive size is less than
60 m. However, the wear rate increases rapidly if the abrasive
size is coarser than 60 m.
Fig. 10 shows the variation of the wear rate of materials with
applied load, when tested against abrasive of size 60 m. It
is noted that the wear rate of cast alloy and cast composites
is increases with applied load and does not follow any specific functional relationship except for cast LM13 alloy and cast
LM1310 wt% SiC composite which follows a liner relationship
with applied load. It may be noted further that at lower applied
load (3 N), the wear rate of composites varies marginally with
heat treatment. But at the higher applied load (5 N) the wear
rate of composite reduced significantly due to heat treatment and
increase in SiCp content. This figure (Fig. 10) clearly demonstrates that the wear of alloy decreases after heat treatment and
reinforcement of SiC particle.
Fig. 7. Wear rate of Al alloy and composite as a function of sliding distance
(applied load: 5 N and abrasive size: 40 m).
Fig. 10. Wear rate of Al alloy and composite as a function of applied load
(abrasive size: 60 m).
4. Discussion
4.1. Materials and mechanical properties
In the heat treatment of AlSi (LM13) alloy, the needleshaped eutectic silicon is fragmented into more or less spherical
one during solution treatment and fine precipitation on the
matrix takes place while ageing treatment. This is attributed
to reduction in surface energy of the needle shaped silicon
particles while changing into near spherical ones as the surface
area to volume ratio is the minimum for spherical shape. This
reduction in surface energy acts as the driving force for such
transformation. Again, the concentration of Si per unit volume
is more at the sharp edges of the needle shaped particle, which
led to the existence of concentration gradient between the sharp
edges and the wider portion of the Si needle. As a result, the
silicon from the sharp edges is dissolved and diffused to the
wider region and in due course of time, it turns into near spherical shape. Here, the heat energy applied during heat treatment
acts as the activation energy for such kind of transformation. In
addition, because of the same reasons, there is a possibility of
coarsening of spherical silicon particles with aging time. Hence,
it is expected that the spherical silicon particles may be coarser
when they are aged for longer duration. Further more, during
aging, precipitation of alloying elements like Cu, Mg, Ni and Fe
may take place which might have caused further strengthening
of the Al-alloy. The composite exhibits more hardness and
strength than that of alloy. This is attributed to the fact that by
addition of SiC particles in the alloy generates more dislocations
because of thermal mismatch stress [38,39]. Such stress is
originated due to differences in thermal expansion coefficient
of the matrix and the SiC particles [38,39] and makes the matrix
plastically constrained and caused higher dislocation strengthening of the matrix. The hard SiC particle also acts as barrier
to plastic deformation of the matrix alloy, which results in
triaxial interaction stress at the interface. This interaction stress
also results in higher strength of the composite. Heat treatment
results in formation of spherical Si particles and precipitation of
other alloying elements (Figs. 2c and 3b) in terms of complex
intermetallic compounds. This leads to higher strength as
well as higher toughness of the alloy and composite after heat
treatment.
4.2. Effect of reinforcement on the abrasive wear
In two-body abrasive wear, the abrasive particles in the abrasive media make contact with the specimen surface and penetrate
inside the specimen surface when load is applied. The penetrated
abrasive is subjected to reciprocating motion over the specimen surface and thus resulting in formation of wear grooves
on the surface of the test specimen. These grooves are generated due to flow or removal of materials either by cutting
or ploughing action. The depth and width of the grooves and
their number on the test specimen surface depend on the shape,
size and rake angle of the abrasives, specimen surface characteristics such as surface roughness and the stability of the
asperities or hard protrusions, and the hardness of the specimen
53
54
Fig. 11. (a) SEM micrograph of as received emery paper (abrasive size: 80 m).
(b) SEM micrograph of emery paper (abrasive size: 80 m) after wear test (load:
5 N, distance: 81 m). (c) SEM micrograph depicting degraded, scooping off
(marked A) and breaking (arrow marked) of SiC abrasive particles in emery
paper.
raiser and caused more surface cracks during abrasive wear of the
cast specimens. Furthermore, the inter-silicon particle distance
may be higher in cast conditions, and hence, either the abrasive particles may penetrate deeper into the specimen surface
or more number of abrasives penetrates into the worn surface.
These facts lead to considerably higher wear rate of cast alloy
and composites as compared to that in heat-treated condition.
It may be noted that the wear resistance of heat-treated alloy
improved by 4070% over the as cast condition depending upon
the applied load and abrasive size. The wear resistance of heattreated composite improved by 2070% over the cast one. It
shows that heat treatment also significantly reduced the wear
rate of the materials. However, the contribution to reduce wear
rate due to particle reinforcement and heat treatment is difficult
to quantify as each of these contributions are varying depending
on test conditions and material. In a nutshell, it demonstrates
qualitatively the synergic effect of particle reinforcement and
heat treatment.
As the silicon particle become spherical, the points of stress
raiser is reduced considerably and the possibility of fracture
and fragmentation of the silicon particle is reduced. The silicon
particles remain intact within the Al-matrix. During abrasive
wear, a fraction of the matrix material is displaced from the wear
grooves and spread along the side of wear grooves in the form
of flakes. These flaky materials remain intact along the wear
track for a longer duration or get smeared on the wear surface
because of their higher ductility. Higher ductility of heat-treated
AlSi alloy is primarily attributed to near spherical shape silicon
particles and results in less surface and subsurface cracking. The
flakes formed due to frictional heating adhered and deformation
on the wear surface in due course is delaminated in the form of
long flakes and plates. As a matter of this fact, the heat-treated
materials are exhibiting relatively less wear rate.
4.4. Effect of load and abrasive size
The abrasive wear behaviour of a material is significantly
influenced by the combined actions of load and abrasive size.
The efficiency of material removal by an abrasive media depends
on the elastic and plastic contact load [20], which varies with
applied load and abrasive size. If the applied load is fixed, then
the effective stress on individual abrasives increases with coarser
abrasive particles, as the load is shared by less number of abrasives. When the abrasive particles are finer in size, they make
only elastic contact with the test specimen surface, as the effective stress in individual abrasive is less. As a result, these abrasive
particles only support the applied load without contributing sufficient material removal. However, at higher load regime, the
effective stress on each individual abrasive particles reach to a
level where the abrasives make plastic contact with the specimen surface and causing more surface damage even at finer
abrasive size. Thus the overall rate of material removal depends
on the extent of plastic contact of the abrasives with the specimen
[30]. Further more, coarser size abrasives generally contain large
number of flows and hence may break easily [35]. As a result,
cutting efficiency of the abrasive media is reduced. These broken abrasives are also picked up by the wear surface more easily
55
56
Fig. 14. SEM micrograph showing formation of large size debris and retained
along the wear track.
Fig. 13. (a) SEM micrograph shows deep and wide grooves and formation of
longitudinal and transverse cracks (load: 7 N; abrasive size: 80 m). (b) SEM
micrograph showing subsurface depicting severe deformation and formation
of cracks in longitudinal and transverse directions (A: deformed region; B:
undeformed region).
easily. All these facts led to slower rate of increase in wear rate
above an applied load of 5 N especially for composite materials
when tested against finer abrasive size, but at coarser abrasive
this effect is less dominating.
In case of alloy, the increase in wear rate may be almost
same for the entire range of applied load. At higher applied load,
because of generation of high heat, the alloy becomes softer than
the composite and during abrasive action; the softer alloy from
the wear groove may also be spreading over the wear surface.
But the depth of cut is so high that significantly larger flakes are
generated and removed from the alloy surface.
When the abrasive size is coarser (60 m), the wear rate
of the alloy and composite is increasing almost linearly with
applied load. This may be attributed to the fact, that the coarser
abrasives are stronger than the finer one and they experienced
higher effective stress even at lower applied load which has been
mentioned earlier. As a result, the surface is subjected to higher
plastic deformation even at lower applied load. The wear rate is
primarily depending on the depth and width of the wear grooves
Fig. 15. SEM micrograph of emery paper (size: 40 m) shows degraded SiC
abrasive (load: 7 N and sliding distance: 108 m).
57
Table 2
Experimental and calculated (shown in bracket) values of abrasive wear rate of Al alloy and composites at different applied loads
Material
Processing condition
3N
5N
7N
LM13
As cast
Heat-treated
7.80(7.71)
4.50(5.58)
18.71(18.71)
12.29(13.41)
25.65(28.2)
15.60(20.39)
32.47(36.25)
25.15(26.27)
As cast
Heat-treated
4.90(5.2)
2.76(4.05)
12.70(12.48)
8.52(9.02)
19.30(18.85)
19.61(14.71)
25.44(24.51)
18.27(19.25)
As cast
Heat-treated
3.70(3.98)
1.46(3.14)
10.7(9.8)
7.5(7.5)
17.40(16.46)
9.85(11.30)
23.80(20.91)
14.50(14.8)
Fig. 16. Effect of abrasive size on the probability of formation of wear debris
(K) of Al alloy and AlSiC composite.
relationship with abrasive size; one can express the equation for
fixed abrasive size. For example, the abrasive wear rate of alloy
or composite at an abrasive size of 80 m can be expressed by
the following equation:
WR = 270 1011 H 0.55 T 0.30 P 0.80 (1 Vf0.53 )
(2)
Fig. 17. Effect of relative abrasive size on the formation of wear debris (K) of
Al alloy and AlSiC composite.
58
cases the calculated values are in close approximate with experimental values. This suggests the reliability of the above equation
for predicting wear rate of Al-alloys and composites from measured tensile data, hardness at any applied load and abrasive size.
The value of K at different abrasive sizes are calculated using
Eq. (1) and the variation of K as a function of abrasive size is
shown in Fig. 16. It depicts that the formation of wear particle (K
value) is more for larger abrasive size. It may also be noted that
there is sudden increase in the value of K when the abrasive
size is coarser than 60 m. An attempt is also made to understand the effect of relative abrasive size (size of abrasive/size
of reinforcement) on the formation of wear particle (K value).
Fig. 17 shows the effect of relative abrasive size on the value of
K. It indicates that when the relative abrasive size is more than
0.8, there is an abrupt increase in the value of K.
5. Conclusions
(1) The wear rate of composite is less than that of the alloy and
it decreases with increase in SiC content.
(2) The hardness and strength of composite are higher than that
of alloy and they increase with increase in SiC content.
Whereas reverse trend is noted to be true for the ductility
of these materials. The hardness and strength of composite is noted to be more after heat treatment. But in case of
alloy, the hardness and strength are noted to be more when
they are aged for 6 h. This may be attributed to the fact that
composites are aged faster than the alloy.
(3) The abrasive wear rate (WR ) of the materials is a function
of applied load (P), hardness (H), strength and ductility (T)
of the materials, volume fraction of the hard dispersoids
(Vf ) and relative size of abrasive with respect to size of the
dispersoid. The wear rate can be expressed by the following
type of relations:
d
WR = K
1+D
m
Acknowledgement
Authors are grateful to Director, RRL, Bhopal, for encouragement and giving permission to publish this paper.
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