Dry Sliding Wear Behavior of a Novel 6351 Al-Al4SiC4 Composite

In this research work the dry sliding wear behavior of 6351 Al alloy and 6351 Al based composites possessing varying amount of (2-7 vol.%) in situ Al4SiC4 reinforcement was investigated at low sliding speed (1 m/s) against a hardened EN 31 disk at different loads. In general, the wear mechanism involved adhesion and microcutting abrasion. Under selected loads (9.8 and 24.5 N), the overall wear resistance increased with increasing content of Al4SiC4 particles since particles stood tall against the process of wear. Besides, strain hardening of the matrix played an additional role to provide wear resistance. Therefore, the newly developed 6351Al-Al4SiC4 composite can be used as light weight wear resistance component in industry.