Tribological behaviour of AA7168 hybrid composite sheets for aerospace structures fabricated through COMPO casting

In this research work, an attempt was made to reinforce AA7168 aluminium alloy with Boron Carbide (B4C) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) through compos casting technique. Tribological test were performed by varying weight percentage (3, 6, 9, 12%), Load (10, 20,30, 40 N), Sliding velocity (10, 20, 30, 40 m/s) and sliding distance(1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 m). The results revealed that the wearresistance increases with addition of reinforcing particles untila saddle point of 9 wt.% owing to the formation of mechanical mixed layer. At 12%, the wear resistance reduces because of the clustering of particles. Because of the hardness of the particles, the
coefficient of friction increases with increasing weight percentage. From Taguchi approach, it was revealed that percentage reinforcement was most influential factor followed by load, sliding velocity and sliding distance. The addition of particles increases the hardness and tensile strength due to the hall petch effect and orowan sstrengthening. WASPAS technique was utilised to optimise the input variables.