Prediction of tribological performance of AA8011/wt.%ZrO 2 based composites fabricated by stir casting route

Aluminium alloy composites are most popular owing to their versatile applications like high performance parts in aerospace, automotive and marine industries. The intent of current research work is, to predict the optimal parameters for dry sliding wear behaviour of AA8011 matrix composites by using multi attribute decision making method. The varying proportions of zirconia (ZrO₂) particles filled composites such as AA8011-5 wt.% ZrO₂, AA8011-10 wt.% ZrO₂ and AA8011-15 wt.% ZrO₂ were synthesized through stir casting method. The microstructure of the proposed composites taken by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and it was ensure the presence of reinforcement particles homogeneously distributed within the matrix alloy. The produced composites were subjected to conduct the dry sliding wear test by using pin-on-disc test rig. During the experiments, four wear control parameters with three levels namely, reinforcement (5 wt.%, 10 wt.% and 15 wt.%), applied load (9.81 N, 19.62 N and 29.43 N), sliding velocity (0.94 m/s, 1.88 m/s and 3.76 m/s) and sliding distance (1000 m, 1500 m and 2000 m) were used. A Taguchi coupled TOPSIS method was employed to predict the multiple responses such as wear rate (WR) and coefficient of friction (COF) of produced composites. Experimental result has been observed that, the reinforcement content was the most remarkable parameter on WR and COF with contribution of 55.06%, subsequently by applied load and sliding velocity with contribution of 26.32% and 12.84% respectively. The worn out surfaces of the tested composite was investigated through SEM analysis.