Application of Taguchi techniques to study dry sliding wear behaviour of metal matrix composites

Aluminium metal matrix composites reinforced with SiC and graphite (Gr) particles was prepared by liquid metallurgy route. Dry sliding wear behaviour of the composite was tested and compared with Al/SiCp composite. A plan of experiments based on Taguchi technique was used to acquire the data in a controlled way. An orthogonal array and analysis of variance was employed to investigate the influence of wear parameters like as normal load, sliding speed and sliding distance on dry sliding wear of the composites. The objective was to investigate which design parameter significantly affects the dry sliding wear. It shows that graphite particles are effective agents in increasing dry sliding wear resistance of Al/SiCp composite.