Materials and Design 63 (2014) 294304

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Materials and Design

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Technical Report

Dry sliding wear behavior of heat treated hybrid metal matrix composite
using Taguchi techniques
T.S. Kiran a,, M. Prasanna Kumar b, S. Basavarajappa c, B.M. Viswanatha a
a

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalpataru Institute of Technology, BH Road, NH 206, Tiptur 572201, Karnataka, India
Department of Industrial Automation Engineering, PG Center, Visvesvaraya Technological University, Mysore, India
c
Department of Studies in Mechanical Engineering, University BDT College of Engineering, Davangere 577004, India
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 9 February 2014
Accepted 3 June 2014
Available online 17 June 2014

a b s t r a c t
Dry sliding wear behavior of zinc based alloy and composite reinforced with SiCp (9 wt%) and Gr (3 wt%)
fabricated by stir casting method was investigated. Heat treatment (HT) and aging of the specimen were
carried out, followed by water quenching. Wear behavior was evaluated using pin on disc apparatus.
Taguchi technique was used to estimate the parameters affecting the wear signicantly. The effect of
HT was that it reduced the microcracks, residual stresses and improved the distribution of microconstituents. The inuence of various parameters like applied load, sliding speed and sliding distance on wear
behavior was investigated by means and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Further, correlation between the
parameters was determined by multiple linear regression equation for each response. It was observed
that the applied load signicantly inuenced the wear volume loss (WVL), followed by sliding speed
implying that increase in either applied load or sliding speed increases the WVL. Whereas for composites,
sliding distance showed a negative inuence on wear indicating that increase in sliding distance reduces
WVL due to the presence of reinforcements. The wear mechanism of the worn out specimen was
analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. The analysis shows that the formation and retention of
ceramic mixed mechanical layer (CMML) plays a major role in the dry sliding wear resistance.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Life of machine component is an important design consideration. Various parameters affect the life of components and the
selection of material directly inuences the life signicantly.
The choice of material for a particular application varies depending on the variables like cost, density, specic strength, modulus
and operating condition. The majority of engine components,
gear drives and so on in automotive and aerospace industries utilizes metals and alloys. The sliding and rotating components
intended to work in lubricating conditions may eventually end
up working in semi-lubricated or dry conditions. This will result
in higher operating temperature with increase in wear and lead
to quicker replacement of components. Hence, wear is one of
the major problems that need to be tackled in order to improve
the life of the component. Composite materials are the promising
alternate for alloys, specically in dry operating conditions.
Current work concentrates on the development of a hybrid
Corresponding author. Address: #133, Coronation Road, Tiptur 572201,
Karnataka, India. Tel.: +91 8134 252717, mobile: +91 98441 13298.
E-mail addresses: kirants@researchmail.vtu.ac.in, kirants111@gmail.com
(T.S. Kiran).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2014.06.007
0261-3069/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

reinforced composite material that can improve the wear resistance in components. Historically addition of reinforcements
has shown signicant improvement in tribological properties.
However in some instances it has shown deterioration in
mechanical properties.
ZincAluminum (ZA) alloy is a competitive bearing alloy that
shows improvement in both mechanical and tribological properties compared with phosphor-bronze, SAE 73, SAE 660 and cast
iron. The density of the latter are much higher compared with
the former element [1,2]. ZA alloy exhibits superior wear resistance at low speed-high load application even in the absence of
lubricant, while there is a decline in wear resistance with increase
in speed and rise in temperature [3,4]. Seah et al. [5] and Babic
et al. [6] performed dry sliding wear behavior of ZA-27 alloy reinforced with Gr particles. These composite specimens exhibited
enhanced wear resistance than the alloy. The smeared Gr particles
formed a protective layer on the specimen. Applied load was
directly proportional to the wear rate for both alloy and composite
specimen [5,6], while variation in sliding speed showed contrast
results in composite specimen [6]. The hardness decreased with
the addition of graphite [5,6] as it is a soft inclusion.
Reinforcing hard SiCp into soft aluminum alloy improves the
wear resistance as well as hardness of the composite material

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T.S. Kiran et al. / Materials and Design 63 (2014) 294304

[710]. Composites with increased volume fraction and larger reinforcement size increase the wear resistance. Particle pull out and
fracture was the mechanism observed for smaller and larger reinforcement size respectively [7]. A step by step increase in applied
load increased the wear rate, whereas a contrast result was
achieved in case of sliding speed by where the wear rate decreased
with increase in speed [8]. The increase in SiCp content improved
the hardness which reduced the wear rate signicantly. Composites reinforced with SiCp exhibited superior wear resistance over
the alloy as fractured particles ensured the participation in wear
behavior avoiding the exposure of alloy [9]. Wilson and Alpas
[10] showed that incorporation of SiCp in Al alloy improves the
mild wear regime at higher load and speed compared to the unreinforced alloy. Prasanna kumar et al. [11] and Ranganath et al. [12]
evaluated the dry sliding wear behavior of ZA-27/garnet composite
and concluded that, increasing garnet content improved the wear
resistance. Meanwhile the wear resistance dropped with an
increase in applied load and sliding speed.
Inclusion of only graphite as reinforcement improved wear
behavior (as it is a solid lubricant), reducing hardness [5,6] (soft
inclusion) while SiCp inclusion showed improvement in both wear
and hardness [710]. The attempt to obtain the combined effect of
solid lubrication and improved hardness attributed to the creation
of hybrid composites. The effect of sliding speed in deciding the
wear behavior of hybrid composites was evaluated by Basavarajappa et al. [13]. It was witnessed that, the specimen experienced
higher wear rate followed by seizure behavior at higher speeds
for alloy, while there was a minor effect of increase in speed for
hybrid composite reinforced with SiCp and Gr. On the contrary,
Suresha and Sridhara [14,15] evaluated that as sliding speed was
increased, wear loss was reduced for different combinations of
SiCp and Gr. Hardness reduces with inclusion of Gr particles in
Al-SiCp composite specimen.
Basavarajappa et al. [16] used Taguchis technique to identify
the inuence of wear parameters and concluded that sliding
distance is the major contributor followed by applied load and
sliding speed. Graphite plays an important role in the formation
of mechanical mixed layer (MML). Several researchers [1719]
studied the heat treated ZA-27 alloy followed by water quenching
to investigate the hardness, tensile and wear behavior. Heat
treatment to ZA-27 alloy improved the distribution of microconstituents. Heat treatment resulted in reduction of the hardness
and tensile properties but had a positive effect on the dry sliding
wear behavior [1719]. The specimen heat treated for 5 h [18,19]
and aged for 8 h [17] showed superior wear behavior over other
heat treatment and aging conditions. The addition of solid lubricant (Gr) with SiC particles in Al alloy proved to be positive on
the dry sliding wear behavior [20,21]. A detailed study on the formation of mechanical mixed layer (MML) and its advantages on the
worn surface of the specimen were presented [22,23]. A statistical
approach was used to nd out the signicance of the factors affecting the wear behavior of hybrid MMCs [2426].
The previous studies on ZA-27 alloy have concentrated on
utilization of SiCp and Gr particles separately. The current work
concentrates on the HT of ZA-27 alloy reinforced with SiCp and
Gr particles which were not investigated in earlier research works
to the best of author knowledge. The parameters that inuence the
wear behavior of heat treated ZA-27 alloy and ZA-27/9SiC3Gr are
evaluated by Taguchi technique in the present investigation.
2. Design of experiments (DOE)
DOE is an important and powerful statistical technique that
evaluates the effect of multiple parameters simultaneously. Experiments have to be conducted in a sequence, with a series of steps,
so that the process performance is better understood. A certain

combinations of factors and levels are considered and varied in a

strategic manner. The results obtained are observed and analyzed,
to nd out the signicant factors and preferred levels [27]. The data
can be acquired in an orderly way by DOE based on Taguchi
approach. There are three main phases in the Taguchi process: (i)
the planning phase (ii) the conducting phase and (iii) the analysis
phase. Among the three listed phases, planning phase is vital
where the factors and levels are decided. The results obtained from
experiments are analyzed for better understanding of the inuential factors.
3. Experimental procedure
3.1. Specimen preparation and wear test
ZA-27 is identied as the matrix material and the reinforcements used are 9 wt% of SiCp with 45 lm and 3 wt% of Gr with
25 lm in size. The composite specimen was prepared by stir
casting method. The ZA-27 alloy was heated above its liquidus
temperature of 500 C. A aluminite coated stirrer was introduced
in the molten slurry to homogenize the temperature. The mixture
of reinforcements were preheated and poured into the rotating
molten slurry. To improve the wettability of reinforcements,
1 wt% of magnesium was added along with the reinforcements.
The molten slurry was stirred for 10 min, so that the reinforcements distribute uniformly in the alloy. The melt was later poured
into permanent castings. The alloy and composite specimen were
subjected to T6 type of heat treatment in four steps: rst, the specimen were heat treated at 370 C for 5 h; second, the heat treated
specimen were quenched in water at room temperature; third, the
quenched specimen were aged at 180 C for 8 h; fourth, the aged
specimen were quenched in water at room temperature.
The dry sliding wear behavior of specimen were evaluated with
pin-on-disc apparatus at room temperature. The specimen were
machined as per ASTM: G99-05(2010) standards, with a dimension
of 8 mm diameter and 30 mm height. The specimen was pressed
against the rotating EN32 steel disc of hardness 65HRc and load
was applied on the specimen by cantilever mechanism. The disc
and specimen surface were cleaned with acetone before each
experiment to remove any traces on the surface. The specimen
were weighed before and after wear test using an electronic
weighing machine which can measure up to 0.1 mg. The difference
in the weight was measured and volume loss was calculated. The
weight loss of the disc is not considered as the hardness of disc
was more compared to specimen.
3.2. Plan of experiments
Wear tests of the base alloy and composite specimen were
conducted under dry sliding conditions for three parameters:
Applied load, sliding speed and sliding distance with variation of
3 levels as shown in Table 1. The experiments were planned based
on standard L27 orthogonal array (OA), consisting of 27 rows and
13 columns. The 1st, 2nd and 5th columns were assigned to
applied load (L), sliding distance (D) and sliding speed (S) respectively in the Orthogonal Array, while the remaining columns were
assigned to their interactions. The present investigation is based on
the objective to study smaller the-better wear response.
Table 1
Process parameters used in the experiment.
Level

Load, L (N)

Sliding distance, D (m)

Sliding speed, S (m/s)

1
2
3

15
45
75

1000
3000
5000

0.63
1.88
3.14

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Fig. 1. Microstructure of as-cast (a) alloy, (b) composite, (c) EDX of alloy and (d) EDX of hybrid composite.

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Heat treatment
As the dendrites dissolve uniformly after HT, the microstructure
of as-cast specimen is shown in Fig. 1. In as-cast alloy (Fig. 1a), the

Table 2
Experimental design using L27 OA.
Test

Load L, (N)

Distance D, (m)

Speed S, (m/s)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27

15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
45
45
45
45
45
45
45
45
45
75
75
75
75
75
75
75
75
75

1000
1000
1000
3000
3000
3000
5000
5000
5000
1000
1000
1000
3000
3000
3000
5000
5000
5000
1000
1000
1000
3000
3000
3000
5000
5000
5000

0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14

Wear volume loss in

mm3
Alloy

Composite

1.4
1.6
2.2
1.5
2.4
3.2
2.5
3.3
4.6
1.7
2.3
2.7
2.7
2.7
4.1
3.8
4.6
6.1
3.5
4.6
6.5
4.7
5.9
7.7
5.9
7.9
9.5

0.5
0.8
1.2
0.7
1.0
1.6
0.9
1.2
1.8
0.9
1.1
1.5
1.4
1.7
2.1
1.3
1.9
2.6
1.5
2.1
2.8
1.9
2.6
3.2
2.7
3.8
4.1

aluminum rich (A) a-phase and zinc rich (B) g-phase can be clearly
differentiated as white and black regions respectively. The
eutectoid (C) a + g phase is rarely visible which is the vital phase
for tribological applications [1719]. The SiC and graphite particles
are shown in Fig. 1b. As the Heat treatment was carried out, the
microstructure was fully transformed into eutectoid phase, giving
added advantage to both alloy and composite specimen. The
microcracks and residual stresses present in the as-cast specimen
were reduced by HT process facilitating improved wear resistance.
EDX of the base alloy and hybrid composite are shown in Fig. 1c
and d respectively, which conrms the presence of reinforcements
(Fig. 1d). Since, all the specimen considered were heat treated, the
advantage of HT on as-cast is not discussed in the present work.
4.2. Hardness
Vicker hardness test was performed on the heat treated alloy
and composite specimen. The results showed a slight increase in
hardness of composite (108 HV) compared with the alloy
(106 HV). The reason for the slight increase is due to the presence
of soft Gr particle that hindered the hardness value [14,15]. One
more factor that inuenced the reduction in hardness value is heat
treatment [1719].
4.3. Wear test
The dry sliding wear experiments were conducted as per the OA
and the results are tabulated as shown in Table 2. For better understanding of the various factors considered L (applied load, in N), D
(sliding distance, in m), S (sliding speed, in m/s) and their interactions, it is required to develop an analysis of variance (ANOVA). The
experimental results were analyzed using commercial software
MINITAB, which is used in DOE applications. The effects and order
of signicance of the design parameter with their interactions are
to be studied on the wear behavior. The analysis was carried out
for a condence level of 1%.

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Table 3
Analysis of variance for alloy.
Source

Degrees of freedom

Sum of squares

Adjusted sum of squares

Adjusted mean of Squares

F-ratio

P-value

Percentage (%) of contribution

L
D
S
L*S
L*D
D*S
Error
Total

2
2
2
4
4
4
8
26

68.019
26.605
20.099
2.761
1.128
0.901
0.492
120.005

68.018
26.605
20.098
2.761
1.128
0.901
0.492

34.009
13.303
10.049
0.690
0.282
0.225
0.061

553.16
216.37
163.45
11.23
4.59
3.67

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.002
0.032
0.056

55.86
21.35
15.93
0.66

6.20
100

S = 0.620278, R-Sq = 93.6% and R-Sq(adj) = 91.7%.

Table 4
Analysis of variance for hybrid composite.
Source

Degrees of freedom

Sum of squares

Adjusted sum of squares

Adjusted mean of Squares

F-ratio

P-value

Percentage (%) of contribution

L
S
D
L*D
L*S
D*S
Error
Total

2
2
2
4
4
4
8
26

13.040
4.602
3.469
0.891
0.304
0.109
0.131
22.547

13.040
4.602
3.469
0.891
0.304
0.109
0.131

6.520
2.301
1.734
0.223
0.076
0.027
0.016

397.83
140.41
105.83
13.59
4.64
1.66

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.001
0.031
0.251

56.67
19.25
14.22
1.63

8.23
100

S = 0.229643, R-Sq = 95.3% and R-Sq(adj) = 93.9%.

Table 5
Response table for means: smaller is better.
Level

1
2
3
Delta
Rank

Wear response of alloy

Wear response of composite

2.522
3.411
6.244
3.722
1

2.944
3.878
5.356
2.411
2

3.078
3.922
5.178
2.100
3

1.078
1.611
2.744
1.667
1

1.378
1.800
2.256
0.878
3

1.311
1.800
2.322
1.011
2

Tables 3 and 4 shows the ANOVA results for the WVL of alloy
and composites respectively. It can be noted from column 7 of
Tables 3 and 4 that the p-value is zero for applied load, sliding
speed and sliding distance, which indicates that these play a major
role in the wear volume loss and have statistical signicance.
Table 3 shows that applied load (p = 55.86%) had a great inuence
on wear loss of the alloy, while sliding distance (p = 21.35%) and
speed (p = 15.93%) showed less inuence on the WVL. The interactions (L * S) had a negligible inuence (p = 0.66%) on the WVL,
while the other two interactions (L * D and D * S) had no effect on
the wear behavior. It can be observed from Table 4 that applied
load (p = 56.67%) has highest inuence followed by sliding distance
(p = 19.25%) and speed (p = 14.22%). The inuence of interaction
(L * D) is negligible (p = 1.63%) on wear volume loss. Thus load is
an important factor that controls the WVL of both alloy and composite materials.
4.4. Analysis of control factors
The response table for WVL of alloy and composite is presented
in Table 5, to analyze the inuence of the control factors. Analysis of
control factors will give the additional important information about
the nature of the process under consideration. The highest difference of control factors indicates the strongest inuence on WVL.
It can be seen from Table 5 that the strongest inuence on WVL
was applied load, followed by sliding distance and sliding speed
respectively in case of alloy. In case of composite, applied load

was the most inuential factor and sliding speed was the second
most inuential factor followed by sliding distance. Fig. 2(a and
b) shows the interaction plot for alloy and composites. Three levels
(low, medium and high) are considered in the experimentation and
a straight line can be drawn for second and third column. In the
rst column of Fig. 2(a and b), there is a sudden increase in the
slope after 45 N, which shows that increase of applied load will
affect the wear performance of the specimen (Fig. 2a). The increase
in sliding distance has positive effect on the composite as the line
shows a reduction in slope (Fig. 2b), while the alloy (Fig. 2a) shows
no change in the wear behavior. The reason for the reduction in
slope of composite specimen is the smearing of reinforcements
and formation of protective layer inhibiting the WVL. Hence, as
sliding distance is increased, the wear resistance improves marginally for composite (Fig. 2b).
Fig. 3(a and b) shows the main effects plot for means of alloy
and composite respectively. The rise in slope of lines indicates
the increase in WVL due to increase in applied load from 45 to
75 N, which can be analyzed that the wear phenomenon has
entered severe wear from mild wear.
4.5. Regression analysis
To ascertain the correlation between the factors (applied load,
sliding speed and sliding distance) and responses (volume loss),
multiple linear regression equations were generated using
MINITAB software. The regression equations are as follows:

Wearalloymm3 0:078 0:0266L 1:84e4 D 0:020S

0:5e5 L D 0:0111L S 1:06e4 D S
R-Sq 93:59% R-Sqadj 91:66%

WearCompositemm3 0:137 0:00987L  1:8e5 D 0:154S

0:4e5 L D 0:00332L S 3:3e5 D S
R-Sq 95:32% R-Sqadj 93:92% 2
Eqs. (1) and (2) refers to the linear regression equation for calculating volume loss by substituting the values of variables of alloy
and composite respectively. The positive sign of the co-efcients

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Fig. 2. Interaction plots for wear volume loss (mm3) of (a) alloy and (b) composites.

refers to increase in the wear volume loss with increase in their

associated variables. While negative sign indicates that WVL
decreases with increase in the associated variables. The negative
sign in Eq. (2) indicates that as sliding distance is increased, wear
resistance is increased due to the smearing of reinforcements that
act as ceramic mixed mechanical layer (CMML). However, the
effects of interactions are relatively insignicant.
Fig. 4(a and b) shows the normal probability plot for alloy and
composite. These probability plots clearly indicates that the
values lies closer to the normal probability line implying that
the errors are distributed normally and the model is adequate.
Thus the model formulated for prediction of volume loss of alloy
and composite which are represented by Eq. (1) and Eq. (2) is
adequate.

4.6. Response surface analysis

Response surface methodology (RSM) is a statistical method
that make use of quantitative data from suitable tests conducted
to determine and solve multi-variable equations. RSM, which is
used to analyze the results and surface plots for alloy and composites are shown in Figs. 5 and 6 respectively. WVL at any zone from
the tests conducted can be predicted from the surface plots. From
Figs. 5 and 6 it is clear that applied load has the most dominant
effect on WVL for both alloy and composite. The remaining factors,
sliding distance and sliding speed were less dominant compared to
load. In Fig. 5, the interactions L * D and L * S show that the slope of
load is more compared to the other two factors, clearly indicating
that applied load has more effect on the WVL.

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299

Fig. 3. Main effects plot for means (a) alloy and (b) composite.

The magnitude of wear volume loss of alloy (Fig. 5), when compared with composite (Fig. 6) is nearly double, which conrms the
wear resistance of composites and the presence of reinforcements
that inhibit the WVL. The smeared and adhered reinforcements act
as a medium preventing the specimen from excessive wear.

signifying the importance of reinforcements. The variation may

be due to the irregularities in the experiment like environmental
condition, machine vibration or human errors.

4.7. Determination of accuracy of wear volume loss

Fig. 8(a and b) and Fig. 8(ce) show the worn out surfaces of
alloy and composites respectively at a sliding speed of 1.88 m/s,
sliding distance of 3000 m and at different applied load. The single
arrow shows the sliding direction of worn surface. It is evident that
the surface of alloy (Fig. a and b) is rough with deep grooves compared with the composite specimen (Fig. 8ce) with ne grooves.
Fig. 8a and Fig. 8b shows the worn out surfaces of alloy at an
applied load of 15 and 75 N respectively. Due to the increase in
applied load, the morphology shows that the alloy (Fig. 8a and b)
has experienced severe wear under the absence of reinforcements.
The composites (Fig. 8ce) show smooth surface in black region
(double arrow) due to the presence of graphite that smears out
during sliding and acts as a layer, protecting the specimen from

For each experiment in the design matrix, the WVL model of

Eqs. (1) and (2) were used to calculate the theoretical wear volume
loss for alloy and composite. The results are summarized in
Table 6.
The experimental values were compared with the calculated
values and the comparison is shown in Fig. 7. It can be noticed that
the WVL values calculated from the multiple linear regression
model follows almost the similar trend as that of the experimental
values. The peaks of the alloy and composites reveal that the excessive wear was inhibited due to the addition of reinforcements. The
slopes of the alloy are higher while that of composites are lower

4.8. Wear mechanism

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T.S. Kiran et al. / Materials and Design 63 (2014) 294304

Fig. 4. Normal probability plot of residuals of WVL (mm3) of (a) alloy and (b) composite.

direct contact with the disc, thus enhancing wear resistance

[10,1316]. The presence of SiCp and Gr are shown in Figs. 8e
and 9(ac). These reinforcements participate in the wear process,
protecting the specimen from excessive wear.
During the wear process, the asperity on the surface of the
rotating steel disc comes in contact with the surface of the specimen (composite). Due to a large difference in the hardness of alloy
and reinforcement, the asperities in the counterface are pressed
into the specimen and the soft surface of composites is scratched.
Due to work-hardening of the surface layer of composite, the projected Fe asperity may detach from the counterface and adhere on
the composite surface. Due to severe scratching on the counterface,
large delamination cavities are formed as a result of fracture of the
surface material. The debris (Fig. 10) from both (specimen and
steel disc) materials are pushed down into the cavities and grooves
of specimen, until it becomes at as the surrounding surface. The
formation of debris from the counterface may be by two ways.
First, the asperities on the surface of counterface break off and
are pressed against the composite surface during sliding, but are
obstructed by the surface material of composite. Secondly, the hard
reinforcements that bear the load on the composite surface will
certainly scratch heavily the counterface surface. These results
are in agreement with Basavarajappa et al. [30].

Due to friction between the specimen and rotating disc during

dry sliding, temperature rises leading the specimen to lower its
mechanical property [1,2]. Due to rise in temperature, the alloy
loses its property of bonding with neighboring elements, resulting
in thin plate like wear debris (Fig. 10a). Even though zinc rich (g)
phase contributes in wear resistance, it is unable to withstand the
higher temperature due to higher applied load. The rise in the temperature was noticeable as the applied load was increased, which
causes a negative effect on the performance of specimen. As the
temperature rises, the bonding within the matrix begins to fail,
leading to severe wear and further changing to delamination with
further increase in applied load [25,26,2830]. For composite
specimen, the rise in temperature was negligible as the formation
of protective layer secluded further exposure of new layer inhibiting
the severe wear at lower load (15 and 45 N). At higher load (75 N),
the protective layer of composite specimen gradually exposed
new material that were unable to retain and leading to severe wear.
In composites, due to rise in temperature, reinforcements gradually
start separating from the alloy, resulting in the direct exposure to
the rotating disc. The presence of microcracks (Fig. 8e) on the worn
out surfaces were observed. The effect of HT is that the residual
stress and microcrack is greatly reduced which affects the wear
behavior positively [1719]. The reinforcements that smear out

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301

Fig. 5. Response surface plot for alloy.

Fig. 6. Response surface plot for hybrid composite.

during the lower applied load and sliding speed get retained on the
specimen. As the applied load and sliding speed increases the
particles projected will brake and act as third body and starts
removing the matrix material. The metal oxides are formed because

of the rise in temperature, the crushed SiCp particles, the smeared

graphite along with a matrix material crush between the pin and
disc forming a ceramic mixed mechanical layer (CMML) preventing
the specimen from excessive wear (Fig. 8e). As the applied load is

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Table 6
Experimental and calculated values of alloy and composites.
Test

Load L, (N)

Distance D, (m)

Speed S, (m/s)

Wear volume loss in mm3

Alloy

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27

15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
45
45
45
45
45
45
45
45
45
75
75
75
75
75
75
75
75
75

1000
1000
1000
3000
3000
3000
5000
5000
5000
1000
1000
1000
3000
3000
3000
5000
5000
5000
1000
1000
1000
3000
3000
3000
5000
5000
5000

0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14
0.63
1.88
3.14

Fig. 7. Experimental and calculated values of alloy and composites.

Composite

Experimental

Calculated

Experimental

Calculated

1.4
1.6
2.2
1.5
2.4
3.2
2.5
3.3
4.6
1.7
2.3
2.7
2.7
2.7
4.1
3.8
4.6
6.1
3.5
4.6
6.5
4.7
5.9
7.7
5.9
7.9
9.5

0.93
1.29
1.66
1.57
2.21
2.84
2.22
3.12
4.03
2.08
2.86
3.65
3.03
4.08
5.13
3.98
5.29
6.62
3.23
4.43
5.64
4.48
5.95
7.42
5.73
7.46
9.21

0.5
0.8
1.2
0.7
1.0
1.6
0.9
1.2
1.8
0.9
1.1
1.5
1.4
1.7
2.1
1.3
1.9
2.6
1.5
2.1
2.8
1.9
2.6
3.2
2.7
3.8
4.1

0.48
0.77
1.07
0.60
0.98
1.36
0.73
1.19
1.65
0.96
1.38
1.80
1.32
1.82
2.33
1.69
2.27
2.86
1.43
1.98
2.53
2.04
2.67
3.30
2.65
3.36
4.07

increased further, the layer formed will be destroyed at a faster rate

leading to direct contact between the new surface of specimen and
disc resulting in higher WVL. The similar results were observed by
other researchers [10,21,22,26,30].
The presence of Fe in Fig. 9(b and c) clearly shows that, there
was a formation of CMML on the surface on the specimen. But as
the applied load increased, there was a progressive increase in
the WVL. At lower load (15 N), the transfer of the disc material
onto the specimen surface was observed and the intensity of Fe
peak was higher experiencing mild wear. As the applied load was
increased (75 N), CMML formed on the specimen surface was
eroded. The formation and removal of the CMML at lower applied
load is slow, hence retaining the protective layer. At higher applied
load, the removal rate of the protective layer is at a faster rate than
the layer formation, leading to severe wear [22]. The study has

Fig. 8. SEM of worn surfaces of Alloy (a) 15 N, (b) 75 N, hybrid composite (c) 15 N, (d) 45 N and (e) 75 N.

T.S. Kiran et al. / Materials and Design 63 (2014) 294304

303

Fig. 9. EDX of worn surfaces of hybrid composite at load (a) 15 N, (b) 45 N and (c) 75 N.

Fig. 10. Wear debris at 75 N (a) alloy and (b) hybrid composite.

clearly indicated the instability and the consequent removal of

CMML resulting in high WVL and further causing transition from
mild to severe wear.

The wear debris thrown out from the rotating disc is been presented in Fig. 10 which shows the size of wear debris of alloy
(Fig. 10a) and composite (Fig. 10b) at applied load of 75 N, sliding

304

T.S. Kiran et al. / Materials and Design 63 (2014) 294304

speed of 1.88 m/s and sliding distance of 3000 m. The size of the
wear debris proves that the extent of wear of alloy (Fig. 10a) experiencing delamination wear. The mechanical layer formed on the
alloy surface were incapable of withstanding the higher load
(75 N) and the layer were detached and thrown away as thin plate
like particles (Fig. 10a). Whereas for composite specimen, the
smeared reinforcements were fragmented and crushed between
the specimen and rotating disc, forming a protective layer. The
wear debris of composites (Fig. 10b) exhibits mild wear with small
particles thrown out from the rotating disc. The debris emerged
out of the alloy measures up to 500 lm (Fig. 10a) and the average
size of debris are nearly 200 lm. In case of composite specimen,
the debris measured are below 100 lm (Fig. 10b). The size of
debris explains the extent of wear in alloy (delamination) in
comparison with the composite specimen.
5. Conclusions
The following conclusions were drawn:
(1) The microconstituents of heat treated materials are well distributed and gets dissolved providing wear resistance by the
zinc rich (g) constituent. The effort to reduce the residual
stresses is attained by heat treatment. The microcracks present in the as-cast specimen which causes excessive wear are
reduced by heat treatment resulting in superior wear
resistance.
(2) The signicant parameters in the wear analysis were found
from ANOVA. Applied load is the most signicant factor followed by sliding distance and sliding speed in causing wear
in case of the alloy. Similarly the contributions for composites are applied load, sliding speed and sliding distance.
The interactions show negligible contribution for both alloy
and composite specimen.
(3) The metal oxides are formed because of the rise in temperature, the crushed SiCp particles, the smeared graphite particles along with a matrix material crush between the pin and
disc forming a ceramic mixed mechanical layer (CMML).
(4) The addition of solid lubricant (Gr) as secondary reinforcement along with SiCp improves the wear resistance by forming a CMML on the contact geometry. The formation and
retention of CMML acts as a protective layer, thereby reducing the wear volume loss in case of composites.
(5) The size of wear debris that emerged out of wear specimen
demarcated the severity of wear in alloy while ne wear
debris showed mild wear in composites.

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