Investigation on Hardness, Surface Roughness and Wear Behavior of Reinforced Recycled Aluminium Cans by Leadwood Particles

Abstract

Tribology is a scientific and technical discipline that investigates the fundamental concepts of wear, lubrication, as well as friction between materials that are in motion with respect to each other. The emergence of novel materials and coating techniques has created a demand for the invention of lubricating systems that are both biologically and environmentally benign. This research paper investigated the mechanical properties (hardness), surface roughness and wear behavior of reinforced recycled Aluminium cans by leadwood particles. Aluminium was smelted and reinforced with leadwood at different weight ratios to produce two composite materials. Hardness, Surface roughness and tribology tests were performed on all samples and ASTM E384 and ASTM G99 standard were followed. The results indicated a successful reinforcement of Aluminium by Leadwood particles. Aluminium reinforced with 2% pulverized leadwood resulted in 53.7% improvement in surface roughness, 10.6% improvement in hardness and 57.7% improvement in wear rate. Aluminium reinforced with 3% pulverized leadwood resulted in 14.2% increase in surface roughness, 5.4<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">%</sup> improvement in hardness and 17.3% improvement in wear rate.