Tribological behavior of AZ91D magnesium alloy composite: effect of hybrid WC – SiO2 nanoparticles

Purpose Aviation field requires a material with greater tribological characteristics to withstand the critical climate conditions. Hence, it is of paramount importance to enhance the wear resistance of material. AZ91D magnesium alloy is a light weight material used in the aviation field for the construction work. The purpose of this study is to augment the wear properties of AZ91D alloy by reinforcing with hard particles such as tungsten carbide (WC) and silicon dioxide (SiO2). Design/methodology/approach In this work, three types of composites were fabricated, namely, AZ91D – WC, AZ91D – SiO2 and AZ91D – (WC + SiO2) by ball milling method, and the tribological properties were analyzed using pin-on-disc apparatus. Findings Results showed that the hardness of AZ91D alloy was greatly improved due to the reinforcing effects of WC and SiO2 particles. Wear study showed that wear rate of AZ91D alloy and its composites increased with the increase of applied load due to ploughing effect and decreased with the increase of sliding speed owing to the formation of lubricating tribolayer. Further, the AZ91D – (WC + SiO2) composite exhibited the lower wear rate of 0.0017 mm3/m and minimum coefficient of friction of 0.33 at a load of 10 N and a sliding speed of 150 mm/s due to the inclusion of hybrid WC and SiO2 particles. Hence, the proposed AZ91D – (WC + SiO2) composite could be a suitable candidate to be used in the aviation applications. Originality/value This work is original which deals with the effect of hybrid particles, i.e. WC and SiO2 on the wear performance of the AZ91D magnesium alloy composites. The literature review showed that none of the studies focused on the reinforcement of AZ91D alloy by the combination of carbide and metal oxide particles as used in this investigation.