Effect of Experimental Variables of Abrasive Wear on 3D Surface Roughness and Wear Rate of Al–4.5 % Cu Alloy

This investigation was primarily carried out to examine the abrasive wear behavior of as cast Al–4.5 % Cu alloy. Wear tests have been carried out using an abrasive wear machine with emery paper embedded with SiC particles acting as abrasive medium. The experiments were planned using central composite design, with, load, cycle and grit size as input variables, whereas wear rate and 3D roughness were considered as output variable. Analysis of variance was applied to check the adequacy of the mathematical model and their respective parameters. Microstructural investigations of the worn surfaces have been carried out to explain the observed results and to understand the wear micro-mechanisms as per the planned experiments. Desirability function optimization technique was finally employed to optimize the controlling factors. The observed results revealed that, grit size plays a significant role in the variation of wear rate and 3D roughness as compared to load and cycles. Based on the significance of interactions, the regression equations were derived and verified further with a number of confirmation runs to assess the adequacy of the model. A close agreement (±10 %) between the predicted and experimentally measured results was obtained from this investigation.