Wear behavior of nanostructured Al/Al2O3 composite fabricated via accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process

In the present work, wear behavior of nanostructured aluminum and composite performed by accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process was investigated. The wear characteristics were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Also, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and crystallographic texture investigations were performed. The results indicated that the ARB process led to the decrease in wear resistance of the monolithic and composite samples compared with as-received aluminum strip. The adhesive, abrasive and delaminating wear mechanisms occurred in the monolithic and composite samples simultaneously. At higher number of ARB cycles, delamination was the dominant wear mechanism. It was found that the surface damage of the composite was more extensive than that of the monolithic sample due to the occurrence of spalling mechanism. It was suggested that the intense Rotated Cube {001} < 110 > texture component of composite helped to crack nucleation and propagation greatly. The role of delamination and especially, spalling in decreasing the wear resistance of composite was very important such that it eliminated the role of reinforcing particles and grain size on the wear resistance. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.