Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 275–279

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Composites: Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

Wear performance of TiC as reinforcement of a magnesium alloy matrix composite

L. Falcon-Franco a, E. Bedolla-Becerril a, J. Lemus-Ruiz a, J.G. Gonzalez-Rodríguez b, R. Guardian b, I. Rosales b,⇑
a
Instituto de Investigaciones Metalúrgicas, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Apdo. Postal 888, C.P. 58000 Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico
b
Centro de Investigación en Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas-FCQeI UAEM., Av Univ. 1001 Col. Chamilpa 62210, Cuernavaca, Mor., Mexico

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Metallic matrix composites (MMC) have been fabricated using Mg-AZ91 alloy and TiC as reinforcement
Received 13 April 2010 by pressureless infiltration technique. The composites were worn against different AISI 4140, AISI 1045
Received in revised form 4 November 2010 and H13 steels. Wear resistance was evaluated under dry sliding condition at different loads. Chemical
Accepted 20 November 2010
analyses have shown the creation during the test of different oxides corresponding to the elements
Available online 27 November 2010
present in the composite. Generalized wear mechanisms of the composites are basically type abra-
sion–adhesion. The wear resistance in all cases was better in the Mg AZ91E alloy than in the composite
Keywords:
MgAZ91E/TiCp.
A. Metal matrix composites (MMCs)
B. Wear
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
D. Mechanical testing
E. Powder processing

1. Introduction 2. Experimental procedure

Metal matrix composites have been studied widely in recent
years, essentially due to their promising advanced properties. Spe-
cific attention has been focused to aluminum and magnesium as
matrices which are widely used in metallic matrix composites
(MMC) [1–3]. The advantages of magnesium and its alloys used
as composite’s matrix among others are the high specific strength
and stiffness, good damping capacities, dimensional stability [4–
11]. The mechanical and tribological behavior of the MMC’s has
been studied extensively. Some information concerning to the
wear behavior of Mg-based MMCs reveals that tribological proper-
ties of Mg alloys can be improved by the addition of hard ceramic
fiber or particulate reinforcement [9,12–17].
The primary aim of this study is to investigate the sliding wear
behavior of the matrix alloy and Mg AZ91/TiCp composite perhaps
for potential automotive applications such as brake assemblies,
although the metal matrix composites are candidate materials
for lightweight armors and protective coatings for defense and
aerospace applications as well as electronic packaging applica-
tions. Until now no clear information is available concerning the
wear properties of Mg MMCs reinforced with a high concentration
of TiC particles.
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +52 777 329 7984.
E-mail address: faye12@uaem.mx (I. Rosales).
MMC composites were produced by capillary spontaneous infil-
tration of TiC porous performs, mixing 56% volume of TiC and 44%
of alloy Mg AZ91 (Table 1). TiC samples were prepared using
1.3 lm average grain sizes TiC powders, using an uniaxial pressure
of 75 kg/cm2, resulting dimensions of 65  10  10 mm rectangu-
lar bar. The samples were sintered at 1250 °C for 1 h, after that,
infiltration was carried out at 950 °C for 12 min, both processes
were performed under argon atmosphere. There are interfacial
reactions between matrix and reinforcement, where chemical
reactions are important to define the porosity and the adhesion be-
tween reinforcement and matrix.
The open porosity was evaluated after infiltration; the compos-
ite shows a 0.25 open porosity and 2.86 for the total porosity. The
porosity was evaluated by ASTM C20-97.
Wear composite specimens were cut from bars, with a dimension
of 5  5  15 mm. The specimen surfaces were ground, using sand
paper 600 grit. A conventional pin-on disk wear system was em-
ployed to evaluate the wear behavior of the pin samples under
two different loads, at constant disk rotation of 200 rpm. The pin
samples were worn against an AISI-1018, AISI H-13 and AISI 4140
steel discs with a bulk hardness of 26 ± 2, 40 ± 3 and 56 ± 1 HRC,
respectively. The applied normal loads over the pin samples were
0.5 and 1.0 MPa, simulating a friction system. The resultant worn
surfaces of the specimens were observed in a scanning electron
microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive spectroscopy
(EDS) system for determination of the oxygen ratios on the surfaces.
The curves obtained from the experiments were evaluated in order
to identify the operating wear mechanism. The approximate
hardness value of the reinforcement TiC is 3200 kg/mm2.

1359-8368/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compositesb.2010.11.012
276 L. Falcon-Franco et al. / Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 275–279

Table 1
Chemical composition of the alloy Mg AZ91.

Elements Al Zn Mn Ni Cu Fe Si Mg
Weight% 8.80 0.71 0.19 <0.001 0.002 0.001 0.029 Bal.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Microstructures

Figs. 1a and 1b shows the secondary electron image of the

microstructure of the alloy AZ91E (Nital 2 etched) and the compos-
ite Mg AZ91/TiCp respectively. It is observed (Fig. 1a) the primary
phase which correspond to a a-Mg phase correlated to the matrix
of the alloy, this phase possesses the higher area fraction (75%
approximately). The b-phase correspond to a Al12Mg17 nominated
as the secondary phase (18% area fraction approximately). An alu-
minum rich eutectic phase it is observed surrounding the b-phase, Fig. 1b. Secondary electron image of the composite surface.
together with a little amount of AlMn precipitates.
Fig. 1b presents the microstructure of the composite Mg AZ91E/
TiC. In the image it is distinguished the reinforcement of TiC (grey
phase), distributed homogeneously over the metallic matrix (clear
phase), while the dark zones correspond to a porosity created on
the composite surface, this effect was produced during the sinter-
ing of the composite, where, due to the matrix is softer in compar-
ison with the reinforcement, some amount of localized particulates
were separated from the surface, in other words, there is not en-
ough cohesion between matrix and reinforcement. The porosity
produced in the composite is on the order of 0.25%.

3.2. Steady state

3.2.1. Wear behavior

Figs. 2 and 3 show the plot of the weight losses versus sliding
distance of worn samples against different steels under dry sliding
conditions and two different loads, namely 0.5 and 1.0 MPa respec-
tively. Two sets of curves are observed in both plots; the first group
of Figs. 2 and 3 presents the plots of the composite MgAZ91E/TiCp
(upper part of the figure) with 1.0 MPa load, where it is clearly vis-
ible that the weight losses of the pins are incremented noticeable
over the three different steels, this effect it is attributed to the
weak bond of the reinforcement particles with the matrix. On the Fig. 2. Weight losses for worn samples (composite and alloys) At 0.5 MPa.
other hand, at low load, the high temperature reached during the
wear process, an oxide scale is formed containing the oxidation
products of the contact materials plus some TiC particles that
may produce an abrasive effect. The marked sharpness morphol-
ogy of the reinforcement (Fig. 1b) became an important factor that
may produce the elevated ranges of weight losses after a short
transient wear period. The curves show a generalized abrasive
behavior (slope changes), except the composite worn over the AISI
4140 steel, which present an intermediate transition close to
2000 m. It is observed in the bottom part of Figs. 2 and 3, the wear
plots of the alloy Mg-AZ91, in this case, the weight losses indicate
linearity with increasing sliding distance, generating a steady state
behavior. The operating wear mechanism for these samples and
test conditions is of the adhesive type. No clear change in the slope
of the weight loss versus sliding distance was observed, which sug-
gests that the formation of an oxide scale on the surface of the
worn test specimens occurs during the test.

3.2.2. Surface analysis

The worn surface of the tested composites are shown in Fig. 4, it
can be seen that the complete surface area is crossed by grooves
Fig. 1a. Microstructure of the Mg AZ91E etched with Nital 2 reagent. generated by the contact of the abrasive particles deflected from
 L. Falcon-Franco et al. / Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 275–279
Fig. 3. Weight losses for worn samples (composite and alloys) At 1.0 MPa.
Fig. 4. Surface image of the worn composite sample.
the contact surface of the composite, actually, a great amount of
particles were observed being depleted out from the wear disk
during the wear tests. If a big concentration of material is removed
from the contact surfaces it may cause progressive wear by the ac-
tion of the detached particles, which results in ploughing and the
creation of surface grooves. Therefore, the former observation
widely confirms the behavior observed on the plots of Fig. 3.
This Fig. 4 shows several points of surface localized damage on
the worn surface, which is characteristic of a severe wear process.
Fig. 5a and b presents the morphology of the surfaces samples
corresponding to the alloy Mg-AZ91 after the wear process; in
these images it is observed layers with regions that present oxide
agglomerations characteristics of an intense temperature incre-
ment. This phenomenon happened at a short sliding distance, gen-
erating a protective lubricant oxide layer, avoiding the severe
damage to the surface itself. The generated layer oxide provides
good morphological stability (smooth surface), which ensures
higher cohesive forces for the contact surfaces. In comparison with
the behavior of the worn composite, that produces severe damage
to the counterpart and the surface itself producing higher weight
losses regimes.
277
Fig. 5. (a) Worn surface of the alloy showing oxide formation. (b) Worn surface of
the alloy with oxides agglomeration.
Fig. 6 shows the chemical analysis of the surface sample, the
spectrum shows the oxygen peak along with Ti and Mg peaks,
which indicate that the most common probable oxides interacting
between the contact surfaces are magnesium oxide and titanium
oxide. The spectrum shows also the presence of iron and oxygen
developed during the process, indicating the formation of oxide
bonds.
3.2.3. Wear calculations
The specific wear rate is then merely given by the slope of the
straight line fitted trough the data points. Table 2 shows the val-
ues of the analyses of the curves of the wear tests at different
loads and for the different wear steel. As it was expected, the wear
factor for the composites and the alloys result to be larger for
samples with 1 MPa load, while samples with 0.5 MPa load pres-
ent a lower wear factor. It is important to mention that the wear
factor decreases 58% for 0.5 MPa and 21% for 1 MPa, indicating a
strong dependence on the applied load. The results observed in
Table 2 shows that the samples may work favorably over the steel
AISI 4140, since there is a slightly value variation in both samples
(composite and alloy).
Wear resistance can be directly related with the intrinsic hard-
ness of the alloys, therefore, an important consideration taken into
account is the particle bond (TiC) of the composite, therefore, con-
278 L. Falcon-Franco et al. / Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 275–279

Table 2
Wear factor for samples at different conditions.

Alloy designation Wear factor (g/m)

Over worn steel 1018 Over worn steel H13 Over worn steel 4140
1.0 MPa 0.5 MPa 1.0 MPa 0.5 MPa 1.0 MPa 0.5 MPa
Load Load Load Load Load Load
5 6 5 5 5 5
Composite Mg AZ91/TiCp 3.03  10 5.18  10 7.91  10 1.84  10 9.67  10 1.27  10
5 6 5 6 6 6
Alloy Mg AZ91 1.35  10 2.05  10 1.25  10 2.32  10 8.15  10 1.74  10

Table 3
Friction coefficient of worn samples under different loads against different steels.

Alloy designation Friction coefficient

Worn steel 1018 Worn steel H13 Worn steel 4140
MPa 0.5 MPa 1.0 MPa 0.5MPa 1.0 MPa 0.5 MPa
Load Load Load Load Load Load
Composite Mg AZ91/TiCp 2.95 e 8 1.12 e 8
5.01 e 8
1.16 e 8
1.27e 8 2.51 e 9

Alloy Mg AZ91 5.5 e 9 2.72 e 9

2.81 e 9
2.66 e 9
5.7e 9 1.19 e 6

low to high values of the applied normal load. The evident

variation in worn sample against AISI 4140 Steel at 0.5 MPa load
may be produced by the flaked out of some portion of material dur-
ing the test.

4. Conclusions

Tribological behavior of composites Mg AZ91/TiCp and the alloy

MgAZ91without reinforcement with zero lubrication at room tem-
perature were investigated. The results indicated that the wear
resistance of the alloy Mg AZ91 present a positive behavior when
the pin sample are worn over the AISI 4140 steel and the worst
steel was the AISI H13. Therefore, at this TiC particulate concentra-
tion, the composite present a low favorable response for the auto-
motive application projected, since the obtained wear rates are
higher in comparison with the unreinforced alloy. Concluding that
the resistance of the material is not enough to support the applied
load on the break system, and the consequent particulate TiC
depletion is followed. We are working to reduce the particulate
concentration on the MMC’s.

Acknowledgements

The authors want to thank to R. Guardian for SEM technical

assistance. This project was partially supported by PROMEP, CONA-
CyT and CIC of UMSNH.
Fig. 6. Chemical analysis from the surface of the worn composite.

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