Abrasive wear of powder metallurgy Al alloy 6061-SiC particle composites

The effects of sintered porosity, volume fraction and particle size of silicon carbide particles (SiC_p) on the abrasive wear resistance of powder metallurgy (P/M) aluminium alloy 6061 matrix composites have been studied. Aluminium alloy 6061 manufactured following the same route was also included for direct comparison. The results show that the beneficial effect of hard SiC_p addition on wear resistance far surpassed that of the sintered porosity in the P/M composites. Tremendous improvements in the wear resistance of aluminium alloy can be expected by adding the SiC_p reinforcements. The wear rates of composites decreased as the amount of SiC_p increased. For the composites containing the same amount of SiC_p reinforcements, the wear rates decreased with increasing SiC_p size. Aluminium alloy composites reinforced with larger SiC_p size are more effective against abrasive wear than those reinforced with smaller SiC_p size. The wear rates of the P/M aluminium alloy and 10 vol.% SiC_p composite were significantly affected by the aging conditions. However, for the 20 vol.% SiC_p composite, and for the composites with large SiC_p size, the aging effect on the wear rate of the composites was found to be small.