Dry sliding friction and wear behavior of Aluminum/Beryl composites

In the present investigation, Al6061–beryl composites containing four different weight percentages (2, 6, 10 and 15%) of beryl have been fabricated using a vertex method (stir casting method). A pinondisc wear testing machine was used to carry out the dry sliding wear tests on both composites and matrix alloy over a load range of 515N and sliding velocity of 1.66m/s for various sliding distances of 16km. The uniform distribution of beryl particles was observed in the microstructural investigation of developed composites, which are more wear resistance than that of the matrix alloy. Scanning microscope analysis of wear surface supported the wear behaviour of both the matrix alloy the composites. Further, it was observed from the experimentation that the specific wear rate and average coefficient of friction decreased linearly with increasing weight fraction of beryl for the former while the latter with increasing normal load and weight fraction of beryl. The best results of minimum wear have been obtained at 10% weight fraction of beryl (size of particles:5375μm).