Abrasive wear behaviour of zinc-aluminium alloy - 10% Al2O3 composite through factorial design of experiment

Two body abrasive wear behaviour of a zinc-aluminium alloy - 10% Al2O3 comp osite was studied at different loads (1-7 N) and abrasive sizes (20-275 mum ) as a function of sliding distance and compared with the matrix alloy. The wear rate of the composite and the matrix alloy has been expressed in term s of the applied load, abrasive size and sliding distance using linear fact orial design approach. The study suggests that the wear rate of the alloy a nd composite follow the following relations: Y-alloy = 0.1334 - 0.0336x(1) + 0.0907x(2) + 0.0219x(3) - 0.0296x(1)x(2) 0.0274x(2)x(3) - 0.0106x(3)x(1) -0.0201x(1)x(2)x(3) Y-comp = 0.0726 - 0.028x(1) +0.062x(2) +0.03x(3) - 0.024x(1)x(2) +0.028x(2) x(3) - 0.016x(3)x(1) -0.014x(1)x(2)x(3) where, x(1), x(2) and x(3) are the coded values of sliding distance, applie d load and abrasive size respectively. It has been demonstrated through the above equations that the wear rate increases with applied load and abrasiv e size but decreases with sliding distance. The interaction effect of the v ariables exhibited a mixed behaviour towards the wear of the material. It w as also noted that the effect of load is less prominent for the composite t han the matrix alloy while the trend reversed as far as the influence of th e abrasive size is concerned. (C) 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.