Hardness Essay

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(d) Surface finish: Rate of wear is affected by Surface roughness. The higher the surface roughness, the higher will be the rate of wear [147]. (e) Hardness of the counterpart: The hardness of the counter-face is inversely proportional to the rate of wear. Hence, the counter-face material with a lower hardness reduces the wear resistance due to the mutual abrasion between the counter material and the wear surface of the specimen [148]. Wear of the counter-face depends on the mechanism of wear of the composite. When load increases, wear rate of both the composite specimen and counter-face increases. When the volume fraction of particulates in the composite increases, its wear rate is reduced but the wear rate of the counter-face is increased. …show more content…

The reinforcements play the most effective role in improving the wear resistance of composites subject to the condition that good interfacial bonding between the reinforcement and the matrix exists. Hard ceramic particles, when added, improve the resistance to seizure at higher temperatures. These particulates permit significant thermal softening effects without any adverse effects on the wear behavior [158]. The reinforcements also yield higher hardness, superior elastic modulus, greater dynamic modulus, better damping capacity and less coefficient of thermal expansion of the matrix material [159]. The inclusion of the ceramic particles provides higher thermal stability, increased abrasion [160] and sliding wear resistance at high temperature and also delays the transition from mild to severe wear [161].Investigations show that the rate of wear decreases with decrease in the grain size. This is because of the grain boundary strengthening of aluminium leading to strain hardening and this happens due to the change in the grain shape from equiaxed to columnar ones [162].The reinforcement of fine Al2O3 particles strengthens the aluminium matrix and enhances the wear resistance [163]. The residual alloy phase and the presence of a rigid ceramic skeleton enable the blunting or lubricating properties of the alloy in producing good tribological properties

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