Air Jet Erosion Wear Behaviour of Al6061-Carbon Fibre Rod Composites

Today, in the world of materials the focus is on the development of metal matrix composites (MMC’s), particularly aluminium based composites due to its widespread applications in aerospace and automobile industries. To develop light weight MMC’s, carbon fibres in both continuous and dis-continuous forms are used as reinforcements. The processing and characterization of mechanical and adhesive wear behaviour of various composites are widely practiced by various researchers around the world. However, solid erosion wear of continuous carbon fibre reinforced MMC’s has not yet been reported. In the light of the above, the present work focuses on characteristics of erosive behaviour of Al6061-carbon fibre rods composites developed by casting route. Carbon fibre rods of 4 mm and 6 mm diameters were surface sensitized to achieve electroless nickel coating followed by copper electroplating on the nickel coated rods and were used as the reinforcements to develop the composites. An air jet erosion rig made according to ASTM G76 standard configuration was used to conduct the tests. The effect of carbon fibre reinforcement, test duration and angle of impingement of the erodent on the erosion wear behaviour of the developed will be discussed at length.