Influence of SiC ceramic reinforcement size in establishing wear mechanisms and wear maps of ultrafine grained AA6063 composites

Abstract This paper described the influence of varying sizes of SiC ceramic reinforcement (coarse (12 μm), fine (1 μm) and nano (45 nm)) in establishing the wear mechanisms and the wear mechanism maps of ultrafine grained (UFG) AA6063/4 wt%SiC composites. The UFG composites were developed by a hybrid manufacturing route of stir casting and cryorolling. The pin-on-disc machine under normal loads of 10–50 N and sliding speeds of 0.5–2 m/s was used to investigate wear behavior. The synergetic effect of cryorolling and varying ceramic reinforcement size has resulted in microstructural modification and has reducing effect on specific wear rate. Microstructural characterization revealed that, cryorolling has accumulated high dislocation density and arrested recovery and recrystallization at liquid nitrogen temperature. Frictional heat generated at wear surface with increase in sliding speed and load has activated the dynamic recovery, recrystallization and precipitation which further increased the hardness and reduced the specific wear rate. The wear mechanisms were established for UFG materials. The wear mechanism maps were constructed and correlated with the microstructures of worn surfaces of UFG materials to identify the dominant wear mechanism.