Tribological Characterization of Lightweight Hybrid Aluminium Composite Under Lubricated Sliding Condition

Lightweight advance composites are the new emerging class of the engineering materials that are rapidly replacing a large category of conventional material for various aerospace, automotive, structural industrial and marine applications because of excellent tribological as well as mechanical properties. The scope and objectives are to investigate tribological properties of the hybrid aluminium composite under lubricated sliding conditions. In this concern, lightweight aluminium hybrid composite is fabricated using non-conventional spark plasma sintering (SPS) route. The tribological behaviour of hybrid composite sample is examined using a ball-on-disc reciprocating universal tribometer configuration for 120 m sliding distance for variable load 10–80 N for 2 mm stroke and reciprocating frequency of 30 Hz. Wear test sliding distance is also performed for the (90–450 m) sliding distance. Two variable lubricants, i.e. Base PAO-4 lubricant and commercial SAE2W50 lubricant, are used in the present study. From the results, it is observed that the commercial SAE20W50 lubricant shows superior tribological properties with the fabricated sample and exhibit min coefficient of friction (COF) and wear rate. Abrasion and delamination are the main wear mechanisms that cause the removal of material while tribological testing. Reduction in the COF is attributed to the 2D graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) reinforcement in the composite samples that cause easy sliding due to weak van der Waals force and hence provide the exceptional lubrication mechanism for the composite sample.