THE EFFECT OF PROCESS PARAMETERS ON MECHANICAL AND WEAR PROPERTIES OF ALUMINIUM-FIRED CLAY COMPOSITES

A. A. Agbeleye; Hassan S.B., Esezobor D.E.,; Balogun S.A., Agunsoye J.O.

A. A. Agbeleye Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
Hassan S.B., Esezobor D.E., Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
Balogun S.A., Agunsoye J.O. Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria

Keywords: sliding wear, surface analysis, sliding friction, hardness, three-body abrasion

Abstract

In this paper, the mechanical and tribological behaviours of as cast and rolled samples of Aluminium AA1070/fired clay (Al-Clay) composites were studied. The composites were developed through stir casting route with 0-20 wt.% clay particles of grain sizes250, 177 and 150 m. The samples were cold rolled to final reduction of 20 and 35%.Hardness, tensile, impact and wear tests were performed on the developed composite samples and their microstructure were examined to determine the phases present in the composite. The results showed improvement in the mechanical and wear properties of Al-Clay composites with increase in wt.% clay addition. Increase in percent reduction also showed a reasonable increase in the mechanical and wear properties of the rolled samples. The results obtained clearly shows that Al-clay composite can be produced by stir casting and possess superior properties to the Aluminium AA1070 in terms of wear properties, impact energy, tensile strength as well as hardness.