Comprehensive Study & Behaviour of Al-6063/Re...

Comprehensive Study & Behaviour of Al-6063/Red Mud Metal Matrix Composite

Author Name : Tasvir Singh

Metal matrix composites (MMCs) possess significantly improved properties including high specific strength; specific modulus, damping capacity and good wear resistance compared to Unreinforced alloys. There has been an increasing interest in composites containing low density and low cost reinforcements. Among various discontinuous dispersoids used, Red Mud is one of the most inexpensive reinforcement available in large quantities as solid waste by-product during bayer process, the principal industrial means of refining bauxite in order to provide alumina as raw material for the electrolysis of aluminium by the Hall–Héroult process. Hence, composites with Red Mud as reinforcement are likely to overcome the cost barrier for wide spread applications in automotive and small engine applications. It is therefore expected that the incorporation of Red Mud particles in aluminium alloy will promote yet another use of this low-cost waste by-product and, at the same time, has the potential for conserving energy intensive aluminium and thereby, reducing the cost of aluminium products. Now a days the particulate reinforced aluminium matrix composite are gaining importance because of their low cost with advantages like isotropic properties and the possibility of secondary processing facilitating fabrication of secondary components. The present investigation has been focused on the utilization of abundantly available industrial waste Red Mud in useful manner by dispersing it into aluminium to produce composites by stir casting method. Tribological behavior of the metal matrix composites was studied by performing dry sliding wear test using a pin-on-disc wear tester. Experiments were conducted based on the plan of experiments generated through Taguchi‟s technique. L9 Orthogonal array was selected for analysis of the data. Investigation to find the influence of sliding speed, applied load and sliding distance on wear rate, as well as the coefficient of friction during wearing process was v carried out using ANOVA and regression equation for each response were developed for both 5% and 10% Red Mud reinforced Al-6063MMCs. Objective of the model was chosen as “smaller the better‟ characteristics to analyze the dry sliding wear resistance. Results show that sliding distance has the highest influence followed by load and sliding speed. Finally Scanning Electron Microscope were done
on wear surfaces.