TRIBOLOGICAL BEHAVIOR OF ZA-27 ALLOY BASED NANOCOMPOSITE REINFORCED WITH SiC NANOPARTICLES

Abstract

Dry sliding friction and wear behaviour of ZA-27 alloy nanocomposite reinforced with SiC nano particles of size 50 nm was evaluated. The content of SiC particles in the alloy was 1, 3 and 5vol. %. The nanocomposites were produced by the compocasting procedure. The SiC nanoparticles as reinforcement were added into the semi-solid ZA-27 alloy under intensive mixing. Mechanical characteristics of obtained nanocomposites were evaluated through hardness tests. A block-on-disc tribometer was used to evaluate the wear volume and friction coefficient, while 30CrNiMo8 steel disc was used as the counterface, under dry sliding conditions at different specific loads and sliding speeds. Wear tracks were examined using optical microscopy. Results indicated that hardness and wear resistance decreases with increasing the content of reinforcement in ZA-27 alloy.