INVESTIGATION OF THE WEAR CHARACTERISTICS OF Al-Si-Mg ALLOY UNDER CONDITIONED THERMAL TREATMENT
Authors: Abdulwahab M, *Umaru O.B, Bawa M.A, Sani L.M, Raymond N
DOI Info: N/A
ABSTRACT
The study is aimed at investigating the wear characteristics of Aluminium-Silicon-Magnesium (Al-Si-Mg) alloy under conditioned thermal treatment in the presence of carbonized melon ash. The alloy was cast, machined and charged in a steel packing box containing the carbonized melon shell for heat treatment. The heat treatment comprised of solution heat treatment at 540 oC for 1 hour followed by ageing. The control samples were aged at 120 oC for 2 hours and cooled in the open air while the second aging operation was carried out at a temperature of 180 oC for varying times of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 hours respectively and cooled in air. Wear test was conducted on each sample with a constant load of 5N, speed of 250 rpm and a dwelling time of 1 minute. The result showed that increase in aging temperature and time decreases the wear rate of the alloy but at some soaking time the wear rate increases due to over aging of the alloy. The minimum wear rate, 0.1148 mm/N/m3 occurred at 2 hours aging time, indicating a wear resistance of 60.67%.
Affiliations: Department of Mechanical/Production Engineering, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Nigeria
Keywords: Ageing Time, Wear Scar, Mitigation, Heat Treatment, Hard Phase
Published date: 2017/06/30
