Determination of wear rate and coefficient of friction of Al6262 reinforced with different weight percentage of WC/MoS2 under dry sliding condition

Abstract

A tribological investigation was undertaken on hybrid metal matrix composites based on Aluminum alloy 6262, incorporating varying weight percentages of Tungsten Carbide (WC) and Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) under dry sliding conditions. Specifically, Tungsten Carbide was incorporated at 3%, 6%, and 9%, while Molybdenum disulphide was introduced at 2%, 4%, and 6%. The fabrication of these hybrid composites was accomplished using the stir casting technique. The experimental design followed an L27 orthogonal array, and Taguchi optimization was employed to identify the optimal combination of input parameters. The orthogonal array, signal-to-noise ratio and analysis of variance were employed to study the optimal testing parameters on developed composites. The optimal formulation, resulting in the minimum wear rate and coefficient of friction, was determined to be 9% WC, 6% MoS2, a load of 10N, a sliding velocity of 1 m/s, and a sliding distance of 400 m. Characterization was carried out for Al6262/WC/MoS2 hybrid composite by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).