FABRICATION OF AL/GRAPHITE/ALO SURFACEHYBRD NANO COMPOSTE BY FRCTION STIR PROCESSING AND INVESTIGATING THEWEAR AND MICROSTRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF THE COMPOSITE

Friction stir processing was applied for fabricating an aluminum alloy based hybrid nano composite reinforced with nano sized Al2O3 and micro sized Graphite particles. A mixture of Al2O3 and Graphite particles was packed into a groove with 1mm width and 4.5mm depth, which had been cut in 5083 aluminum plate of 10mm thick. Packed groove was subjected to friction stir processing in order to implement powder mixture into the aluminum alloy matrix. Microstructural properties were investigated by means of optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that reinforcement particle mixture was distributed uniformly in nugget zone. Wear resistance of composite was measured by dry sliding wear test. As a result, hybrid composite revealed significant reduce in wear rate in comparison with Al/AL2O3 composite produced by fiction stir processing. Worn surface and the ground powder of wear test were examined by SEM in order to determine wear mechanism.

Keywords:

Friction Stir Processing , Hybrid Nano Composite , Scanning Electron Microscopy , Wear Resistance