Empirical Model for Dry Sliding Wear Behaviour of Centrifugally Cast Functionally Graded Al/SiCp Composite

Horizontal centrifugal casting machine was adopted to fabricate tubes of functionally graded materials (FGM) made of commercially pure aluminum reinforced with different weight fractions of SiC particles. Tubes with 2.5, 5 and 10%wt. SiC p were produced in the speed range 800 to 1100 rpm. Wear experiments involving dry sliding under different loading conditions were conducted on samples taken from three consecutive layers across the wall of the FGM tubes. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the significant FGM production parameters and wear test parameters (normal load and test duration) affecting the wear resistance of the samples. Obtained wear test results have been used to build a regression model to predict the expected weight loss across the wall thickness of the tube depending on the production parameters and the loading conditions.