Wear and seizure of aluminium-silicon piston alloys in reciprocating motion against steel

Aluminium-silicon alloy pins were dry slid in unidirectional and reciprocating sliding against steel counterfaces in a normal pressure range of 0.39-26 MPa and a sliding speed range of 0.6-1.8 m/s. Changing the mode of sliding from unidirectional to reciprocating as well as an increase in reciprocating speed were found to affect wear and seizure resistances adversely. Alloying additions of copper and magnesium to the base metal, on the other hand, were found to improve both of these properties. The temperature rise of the pin during sliding and the mechanical behaviour of the test alloys in compression in a temperature range of 25-300°C and a strain rate range of 0.1-100/s were recorded and the data incorporated into a qualitative model to account for the wear and seizure behaviour of the test materials.