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Abstract
The tribological behavior of self-lubricated aluminium/SiC/graphite hybrid composites with various amount of graphite addition
synthesized by the semi-solid powder densication (SSPD) method has been studied. As the amount of graphite increases, the
hardness and CTE of the composites decreases. Fracture toughness decreases monotonically as the graphite content increases. It
was found that the seizure phenomenon which occurred with a monolithic aluminium alloy did not occur with the hybrid composites. The amount of graphite released on the wear surface increases as the graphite content increases, which reduces the friction
coecient. Graphite released from the composites bonded onto the wear surfaces of the counter faces. However, the amount bonded is small, and X-ray mappings showed no signicant dierence in the amounts bonded for dierent graphite additions. Wear
becomes more stable, and wear debris particles become smaller as the graphite content increases, which is reected by the lower
electric contact resistance. More fracturing is shown on the wear surface of the composite with high graphite addition as a consequence of poor fracture toughness by comparison with composites with low graphite. There seems to be less abrasive wear on the
composites than on the counter faces. The wear rate of the composite increases as the amount of graphite content increases up to
5% then falls to a lower value for an 8% addition. However, the wear rate of the counter face increases as the amount of graphite in
the composites increases up to 8%. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: A. Metal-matrix composites; B. Fracture toughness; D. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES); D. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM);
Wear
1. Introduction
Metal-matrix composites (MMCs) possess many
advantages over monolithic materials, including higher
specic strength, good wear resistance, higher thermal
conductivity than ceramic materials, lower coecient of
thermal expansion, etc., and they have been used in the
aircraft, space, defense and automotive industries [14].
In the area of wear resistance, it is conventional to apply
a lubricant to reduce the wear. However, some wear
parts are dicult to access, making it dicult to apply
lubricant to their surfaces externally to reduce the wear.
Self-lubricated materials containing a lubricant component that can be released automatically during the wear
process have therefore become an important branch of
wear materials.
* Corresponding author. Fax: +886-6234-6290.
0266-3538/00/$ - see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0266-3538(99)00106-2
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[914] processes were combined into an integrated netshape forming process. Aluminium powder, SiC powder
and graphite powder were mixed and heated into the
semi-solid regime of the aluminium, where the composite powders were deformed in a semi-solid state into
self-lubricating hybrid composite compacts. The
amount of graphite added was varied in order to study
its eects on the tribological behavior of the self-lubricating hybrid composites.
2. Experimental methods
Mixtures of 6061 aluminium powder (average powder
size: 30 mm), SiC powder (average powder size: 45 mm)
of 10 vol% (v/o), and graphite powder (average powder
size: 8 mm) of 2, 5 and 8 v/o, were mixed in a V-shape
mixer. The mixtures were then put into a graphite container of 1 0 mm in diameter 20 mm in length and
semi-solid-deformed directly.
Semi-solid powder densication was carried out with
a 10 ton Instron machine, model 1125, as shown schematically in Fig. 1. The mixtures were placed between
graphite plates. Thermocouples were attached to the
bottom of the bottom graphite plate and to the bottom
of the graphite container. A three-zone temperaturecontrolled furnace was used to control the temperature
of the mixtures with feedback from the thermocouples.
The solidus and liquidus temperatures of 6061 aluminium alloy are 582 and 652 C, respectively. The
mixtures were heated to 630 C for semi-solid powder
densication, and held for 10 min to equalize the
temperatures within the mixtures before the onset of
M.L.T. Guo, C.-Y.A. Tsao / Composites Science and Technology 60 (2000) 6574
The coecient of thermal expansion (CTE) was measured at a heating rate of 10 C/min. Vickers hardness
measurements were made with a 5 kg load. Fracture
toughness was measured by using the conventional threepoint bending test method. Wear tests were performed
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Fig. 6. Wear debris generated during wear process for (a) 0 v/o, (b) 2 v/o, (c) 5 v/o, and (d) 8 v/o of graphite additions.
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Fig. 7. Macrographs of the fracture surfaces of Al/10SiC composites with (a) 0 v/o, (b) 2 v/o, (c) 5 v/o, and (d) 8 v/o of graphite additions.
M.L.T. Guo, C.-Y.A. Tsao / Composites Science and Technology 60 (2000) 6574
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Fig. 8. Micrographs around the tips of the precracks of Al/10SiC composites with (a) 0 v/o, (b) 2 v/o, (c) 5 v/o, and (d) 8 v/o of graphite additions.
coecient decreased as the percentage of graphite addition increased, and have found that the friction coecient of the Al/8Gr composite was about 0.5. In this
study, the average friction coecient of the Al/10SiC/
8Gr composites was about 0.844, higher than that of the
Al/8Gr composite, which is expected because of the
presence of the SiC particles. Fig. 11 shows the wavelength-dispersive spectrometry (WDS) mappings of the
carbon element for the wear surfaces of the composites
with various graphite additions. It is shown that the
amount of graphite released on the wear surface increases as the percentage of graphite addition increases.
Since the graphite acted as a solid lubricant, the friction
coecient decreased as the graphite released on the
wear surface increased. This is also evident by examining the degree of the scattering of the friction coecient
curves as shown in Fig. 9, in which the degree of the
scattering of the friction coecient curves is the largest
for the composite without any graphite addition, and
becomes smaller as the amount of graphite addition
increases, which was a result of the release of the graphite acting as the solid lubricant. Therefore, the wear
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Fig. 9. Friction coecient between the composite specimen and wear counterpart for (a) monolithic aluminum alloy, and (b) Al/SiC/Gr hybrid
composites with 0 v/o, 2 v/o, 5 v/o, and 8 v/o graphite additions.
Fig. 10. Variations of friction coecient with the percentage of graphite addition.
M.L.T. Guo, C.-Y.A. Tsao / Composites Science and Technology 60 (2000) 6574
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Fig. 11. Wear surfaces of the composites (left), and WDS mappings of the Carbon element for the wear surfaces (right) of the composites with (a) 2
v/o, (b) 5 v/o, and (c) 8 v/o of graphite additions.
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Fig. 12. Wear surfaces of the counterparts (left), and WDS mappings of the Carbon element for the wear surfaces of the wear counterparts (right),
for (a) 2 v/o, (b) 5 v/o, and (c) 8 v/o of graphite additions.
M.L.T. Guo, C.-Y.A. Tsao / Composites Science and Technology 60 (2000) 6574
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the wear process became smaller as the amount of graphite addition increased, as shown in Fig. 6, and the
wear became more stable as the amount of graphite
addition increased, as indicated by the degree of the
scattering of friction coecient in Fig. 9.
4. Conclusions
Fig. 13. Weight loss of the composites and the counterparts in 5 min
of wear process for various graphite additions.
References
[1] Niskanen P, Mohn WR. Versatile metal-matrix composites. Adv
Mater Proc 1988;3/88:3941.
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