Tribological Investigations of Aluminium-Silicon(Al-SI) Alloys

This work attempts experimental studies in Tribological behaviour of aluminum silicon alloys. Aluminum alloys have extensive application in industries due to the better tribological properties. Mixing of silicon to aluminum tends to increase its strength to weight ratio and wear resistance, and tends to decrease its density and coefficient of thermal expansion. In the present work Al-Si alloy cylindrical pin is prepared from used pistons of IC Engines of automobile vehicles and experiments have done to determine the tribological behavior of aluminum-silicon 392.0 alloy sample pins (78%Al, 18%Si, 1%Mg, 1.07%Cu, 0.3%Fe). Experimental investigation has done using a pin on-disc type wear testing machine and selected testing parameters were sliding velocity, contact sliding distance and applied load. The final results indicated loss in pin weight (gms) in dry and wet (lubricating) conditions. And from the experiments, it has been observed that the wear of pin was significantly higher at sliding speed of 4m/s and sliding distance 4000m as compared to the lower sliding speed (2m/s) and distance (2000m). Results showed that with the addition of Silicon content, the hardness of alloys increases and by increasing sliding speed and sliding distance, wear rate also increases. The microscopic analysis, showed the different wear patterns at different loads and sliding speeds.