Influence of wood fly ash reinforcement on the wear behaviour of friction stir processed aluminium-based surface matrix composite

In order to achieve low cost and cleaner production of metal matrix composites (MMC) has propelled younger researchers into using various forms of agrowastes powders as promising and potential alternative to metallic powder for reinforcement during the development and production of MMC. In recent past, industrial coal fly ash has been used extensively for reinforcement both in stir casting and friction stir processing and this material are basically found in big cities of some countries and as such not easily accessible to everyone. In this study, domestic wood fly ash has been developed, characterized and utilized as reinforcement during friction stir processing of aluminium alloy 7075-T651 due to its accessibility and availability to everyone, even people in the villages. The friction and wear behaviours such as wear resistance, wear rate, wear volume, and coefficient of friction of the processed samples were studied. Ball on flat disk tests were performed using Rtec Universal tribometer MTF 5000 with varying loads of 20 and 50 N under influence of dry friction. It was noted that at higher load of 50 N addition of wood fly ash greatly reduced wear rate, volume loss and coefficient of friction and also increased wear resistance. It was also obvious that abrasive wear was conspicuous at lower load of 20 N than at higher load and as such more debris were noted at lower load.