Effect of grain refinement on wear properties of Al and Al-7Si alloy

The effect of grain size of Al and dendritic arm spacing (DAS) of alpha-Al in Al-7Si alloy on wear behaviour of Al and Al-7Si alloy were investigated in the present study. The results show that the wear rate decreases with the decrease in the grain size and DAS of Al and Al-7Si alloy, respectively, at a load of 50 N, sliding distance of 1800 m and sliding velocity of 1 m s(-1) under dry sliding condition. Al-7Si alloy was grain refined using various grain refiners such as Al-1Ti-3B, Al-3Ti and At-3B while Al was grain refined with Al-5Ti-1B. The results suggest that the wear properties are not dependent on the type of grain refiner used, but depend on the grain size/DAS of the metal/alloy and the presence of second phase (eutectic Si in Al-Si alloy). Effect of fading of grain refiner on wear rate was also clearly observed. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.