Dry Sliding Wear Behaviour of Basalt Short Fiber Reinforced Aluminium Metal Matrix Composites

The aim of the work was to investigate the wear properties of basalt short fiber reinforced aluminum Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) using pin-on-disc wear test rig. The Al/basalt MMCs contains basalt short fiber from 2.5 to 10 % in steps of 2.5 wt. % and fabricated using compocasting technique. The influences of the content of basalt short fiber, wear load, sliding distance, sliding velocity and mode of worn-out surface were discussed. The results indicated that Al/basalt short fiber composite had better wear resistance than that of the matrix alloy and it decreases with wt. % of basalt short fiber content. In other direction wear rate of both unreinforced alloy and reinforced composites increased with increasing in wear load and the sliding speed. Surfaces before and after wear tests were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Keywords: Metal matrix composite (MMCs), Basalt fibers, sliding wear, wear rat