The transient and steady wear coefficients of A6061 aluminium alloy reinforced with alumina particles

Experimental wear tests were carried out on three types of pins made of commercial A6061 aluminum alloy matrix composites reinforced with 10, 15 and 20% volume fraction of alumina particles. A load of 7.5 kg and a velocity of 4.58 m/s were used, with distances of 250-12 000 m. Both the transient and steady state wear coefficients of the composites were determined by using Archard's equation and a new equation formulated by using the transient volume proposed by Zhang et al. The proposed equation, K-w = 3Hm(A)d(1-f(v))/PLg(3)f(v)[1-exp(-g(3)f(v)L/d(1-f(v)))], was found to be accurate with a maximum deviation of 24% for predicting the transient and steady state wear coefficients of the steel/Al-Al2O3(P) system, for the distances covered in this study. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.