Erosion behavior of Al-SiC and Al-WC MMCs via powder metallurgy under solid particle impingement

This study investigates the erosion behavior of Al-SiC and Al-WC metal-based composites in a solid particle impingement environment developed through powder metallurgy. Micro-sized powders of SiC and WC were utilized in different weight proportions (0-10 wt%) for fabricating the composite samples. The angle of impingements of 30-90° and impact velocity of 30-90 m/s were used for solid particle erosion testing. Microstructure was characterized by XRD, SEM, and EDS. The results of the ANOVA test indicate that impact velocity is the most significant factor, followed by reinforcement content. SiC composite with reinforcement content of 2.5 and 5 wt% showed ductile erosion behavior at lower angles of impingements and brittle behavior at higher angles of impingements. On the other hand, 10 wt% of SiC indicated a semi-ductile erosion behavior. The reinforcement content is 5 and 10 wt % of WC showed a semi-ductile erosion behavior, whereas 2.5 wt% of WC showed a mix of ductile and brittle behavior. At a 30° angle of impingement, SiC (10 wt%) provides the best erosion performance, whereas, at 90° (i.e., at normal), WC (10 wt%) performs better than all other composites. SiC (5 wt %) comes out to be the best performer at 45° of the angle of impingement.