Wear Behavior of Al-Al3V and Al-(Al3V-Al2O3) Nanostructured Composites Fabricated by Mechanical Alloying and Hot Extrusion

The present work was undertaken to characterize the wear behavior of nanostructured Al-Al3V and Al-(Al3V-Al2O3) composites produced by milling and hot extrusion. The samples were characterized by pin-on-disk wear test, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results of wear test showed the nanostructured composites, as compared with the base metal, exhibited higher wear resistance. Dominate wear mechanism of the composites was recognized to be formation of mechanically mixed layer (MML) on the worn surfaces. Comparison of wear behavior of the Al-10 wt. %Al3V and Al-10 wt. %(Al3V-Al2O3) composites showed that Al-10 wt. %Al3V composite at different temperatures and for different loads has less wear rate than the Al-10 wt. %(Al3V-Al2O3) composite due to the weaker bond strength between Al2O3 particles and Aluminum matrix.