Effect of TiO2 inoculants on the wear conduct of the aluminium AA 6061/red mud high performance hybrid composite

Abstract

The current work focuses on the manufacturing of aluminium AA 6061 composites and its tribological characterization. This is achieved by reinforcing the matrix with red mud. However, the uniform dispersion of red mud requires ultrasonic assisted stir casting and the use of optimum wt.% of TiO2 inoculants. In this regard, the composition of red mud is fixed at 2 wt.%, since the addition of red mud beyond 2 wt.% results in the agglomeration, while the wt.% of TiO2 inoculants is varied from 2 wt.% to 6 wt.%. The wear tests are conducted as per the L9- Orthogonal Array (OA) for a load range of 10 N to 30 N, sliding distance of 500 m to 2500 m, disk rotation speed of 200 RPM to 600 RPM. The regression coefficients are more than 0.9 and close to unity and the error between the experimental outcomes and statistical values are within the tolerance band. The SWR and COF is minimized for 2 wt.% of red mud, 4 wt.% of TiO2, beyond which there is a slight increase in the wear of the composites attributed to the agglomeration of the reinforcments in certain localized regions and the presence of voids in other regions.