Study of tribological properties on aluminium based hybrid composite developed through microwave energy

• Published in: Materials today : proceedings Vol. 44; pp. 4245 - 4250
• Main Authors: Raghavendra Pai, K., Hebbale, Ajit M., Vishwanatha, J.S., Sachin, B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2021
• Subjects: Alumina; Aluminium; Metal matrix composite; Microwave; Molybdenum disulfide; Microwave; Aluminium; Molybdenum disulfide; Metal matrix composite; Alumina
• ISSN: 2214-7853; 2214-7853
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matpr.2020.10.540

Aluminium alloy 6061 is used as a matrix material and reinforced with alumina and molybdenum disulfide by microwave sintering method. The conventional sintering technique has taken many years as of now and which also has several limitations like time and power-consuming. Microwave processing techniques are in the recent use of attraction to resolve the limitation of conventional techniques. In the current work Al6061 hybrid metal matrix composite reinforced with alumina and molybdenum disulfide (Al + 4% of Al2O3 + 2% of MoS2) was developed through a domestic microwave oven. The microstructural study reveals the consistent distribution of Al2O3 and MoS2 reinforcement in the microwave developed composite material and very minute porosity was observed in the developed structure. Microwave processed composites shown higher wear resistance than the aluminium alloy.The wear rate of the Al matrix is more compared to that of the developed microwave hybrid metal matrix composite with a composition of Al + 4% Al2O3 + 2% MoS2. The Addition of Al2O3 and MoS2 reinforcement might have resulted in the improvement of wear resistance of the developed material. Plastic deformation and formation of oxide on the surfaces at elevated temperature were observed on the developed microwave composite, which further allows for easy sliding over the surface of the disc surface and reduction of wear loss at faster speeds.