Investigation of Elevated Temperature Wear Behavior of Al 2024-BN Composites using Statistical Techniques

This paper presents the elevated temperature wear behavior of 2024 aluminum (Al) alloy matrix composites reinforced with BN particles (1 wt.% and 2 wt.%) manufactured by hot pressing. The tribological performance of the samples was evaluated under loads of 10N, 20N and 30N, and at temperatures of 25°C, 125°C and 225°C. The wear tests showed that 2024/2 wt.% BN exhibited the best wear performance. The wear rate of 2024/2 wt.% BN under the load of 30 N at a temperature of 225°C was 35.7% lower than unreinforced 2024 alloy. Worn surface analysis shows that the delamination is generally the dominant wear mechanism at the temperature of 25°C, whereas metal flow and severe delamination are identified as a wear mechanism at the temperature of 225°C. The analysis of variance showed that the contribution of the temperature, load and BN content on the wear rate was 46.21%, 23.97% and 12.92%, respectively. Regression equations (linear and nonlinear) were created for the prediction of the wear rate. The nonlinear regression has the highest success with a high determination coefficient (91.5%).