Investigation of the wear resistance and microstructure of Al/SiC metal matrix composites as a function of reinforcement volume fraction and reinforcement to matrix particle size ratio applying artificial neural network

Abstract

In this study, the influences of reinforcement volume fraction and the ratio of the reinforcement particle size to the matrix particle size on the wear behaviour of Al/SiC metal matrix composites were investigated by use of a model function obtained from an artificial neural network. Hardness and ball-on-disc wear tests were applied to Al/SiC composites manufactured via a powder metallurgy method. The results indicate that as the reinforcement volume fraction and the ratio of the reinforcement particle size to the matrix particle size increase, the wear loss decreases except in two cases; in the first case (vol.% ≤ 7.5), as the ratio of the reinforcement particle size to the matrix particle size rises, the wear loss increases and then decreases. In the second case, the decreasing trend of wear loss at high values of volume fraction (≥ 15%) declines and then increases where the value of the reinforcement to the matrix particle size ratio is about 1.

Effect of high ratio of reinforcement particle size to matrix powder size and volume fraction on microstructure, densification and tribological properties of SiCp reinforced metal matrix composites manufactured via hot pressing method

“…This composite material with the weight loss of 0.0011 g has shown the best wear resistance. It is worthy to note that, the optimum value of volume fraction to have the best wear performance was obtained 15% in our previous study [56]. The highest mean COF value is referred to the composite with volume fraction of 20% and R s /M s ratio of 3.5.…”

“…This composite material has shown the weakest wear resistance. The high value of the volume fraction increases the probability of clustering [29,56], therefore; the reinforcement particles would easily be dislodged and removed from the surface and increase the metal-metal contact. Fig.…”