Effect of Particle Size on Wear Behavior of Al-Garnet Composites

Metal matrix composites are the potential candidate for the variety of structural applications such as those in aerospace, transportation, and defense because of the wide range of mechanical properties they possess. The present study aims to analyze the effect of particle size on the microstructural features, microhardness and wear behavior of composites. Composites reinforced with garnet particles of different size range (fine 50-75 mu m) and (coarse 106-125 mu m) in Al-Si alloy (LM13) were prepared by stir casting route. The microstructure obtained reveals nearly uniform distribution of ceramic particles inside the LM13 alloy matrix. Reinforcement of fine size particles has led to the increase in hardness of fine size reinforced composite to nearly 9% over coarse size reinforced composites, whereas wear resistance improved by 7% and 5% for 10 and 15wt% reinforcement, respectively. However, the wear resistance increased considerably up to 13% for fine size reinforced composite when the reinforcement content was increased from 10 to 15wt%.