Microstructural characterization and experimental investigations into two body abrasive wear behavior of Al-7079/TiC in-situ metal matrix composites

High strength Al-7079 aluminum metal-matrix composites with 5, 7 and 9 wt.% of TiC particulate reinforcement were procured by in-situ melt reaction method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and XRD analysis were conducted in order to confirm the presence of titanium carbide (TiC) particles and homogeneity inside the aluminum matrix. The parameters like applied load (9.8–29.4 N), sliding distance (1000–2000 m), sliding velocity (1.5 m/s) and SiC-P-600 grit paper (25 µm) were used in this study. The influence of sliding distance, applied load and wt.% of (TiC) reinforcement on in-situ Al-7079 under two body abrasion was investigated. Further, the obtained results were compared with the base Al-7079 alloy. It was examined that, the in-situ reinforced composites exhibited significantly greater wear resistance of 20–60% compared to conventional as cast Al-7079 base matrix. Experimental results confirmed that the wt.% of TiC and sliding distance had higher influence on coefficient of friction and the weight loss was highly affected by the applied load. Further the wear mechanisms involved in the worn surfaces were demonstrated through atomic force microscopy and SEM analysis throughout the surfaces.