Abrasive wear behaviour of zinc-aluminium alloy - 10% Al2O3 composite through factorial design of experiment

Two body abrasive wear behaviour of a zinc-aluminium alloy - 10% Al2O3 composite was studied at different loads (1–7 N) and abrasive sizes (20–275 μm) as a function of sliding distance and compared with the matrix alloy. The wear rate of the composite and the matrix alloy has been expressed in terms of the applied load, abrasive size and sliding distance using linear factorial design approach. The study suggests that the wear rate of the alloy and composite follow the following relations: $$\begin{gathered} Y_{{\text{alloy}}} = 0.1334 - 0.0336x_1 + 0.0907x_2 + 0.0296x_1 x_2 + 0.0274x_2 x_3 - 0.0106x_3 x_1 \hfill \\ {\text{ }} - 0.0201x_1 x_2 x_3 \hfill \\ Y_{{\text{comp}}} = 0.0726 - 0.028x_1 + 0.062x_2 + 0.03x_3 - 0.024x_1 x_2 + 0.028x_2 x_3 - 0.016x_3 x_1 \hfill \\ {\text{ }} - 0.014x_1 x_2 x_3 \hfill \\ \end{gathered}$$ where, x1, x2 and x3 are the coded values of sliding distance, applied load and abrasive size respectively. It has been demonstrated through the above equations that the wear rate increases with applied load and abrasive size but decreases with sliding distance. The interaction effect of the variables exhibited a mixed behaviour towards the wear of the material. It was also noted that the effect of load is less prominent for the composite than the matrix alloy while the trend reversed as far as the influence of the abrasive size is concerned.