Air Jet Erosion studies on Aluminum - Red Mud Composites using Taguchi Design

Abstract

Due to its numerous uses in the industries of aerospace, defense, automotive, and marine, among others, metal matrix composites (MMCs) are currently receiving a lot of attention in the world of materials., the present work focuses on characteristics of erosive behaviour of Al-Red mud (Rm) reinforced composites developed by stir casting and the effect of red mud in the aluminum metal matrix composites in composition of 2% wt., 4% wt., 6% wt., 8% wt. which is subjected to various tests to study their wear properties in comparison to base alloy. Experiments are conducted under laboratory conditions to assess the air jet erosion characteristics of the red mud reinforced aluminum composites according to ASTM G76 standard. Finally, the surface of the worn-out sample is studied under the Scanning Electron Microscope, to get an idea about the effect of red mud reinforcement on erosion behaviour of the composite. The collected data was analyzed and visualized in Minitab V19 software. To find SN plots, Taguchi analysis was performed on the collected data. ANOVA and regression analysis were both used to determine the associations between the many parameters that were chosen. Form the overall analysis Al- composites consist 8% of RMp shows the optimum erosion at SOD of 30mm at 15 and 90 degree of impact angle for 3mins of time.