Wear behaviour of AE42+20% saffil Mg-MMC

The wear behaviour of AE42 magnesium alloy and AE42+20% saffil short fibre composite is investigated in dry sliding condition using a pin-on-disc set-up in the load range of 5–40 N with sliding speeds of 0.838, 1.676 and 2.513 m/s for a constant sliding distance of 2.5 km. In case of both the alloy and the composite wear rate increases with increasing loads and the wear rate of the composite is lower at lower loads. At all sliding speeds, a crossover in wear rate is observed with the increase in load, i.e., above a certain load the wear rate of the composite becomes greater than that of the alloy, and the crossover shifts to lower loads with increase in the sliding speed. Severe sub-surface plastic deformation and fibre breakage are found to be the dominant mechanism for the unreinforced alloy and the composite, respectively.