Sustainable utilization of fly ash in AA8011 metal matrix composites for enhanced wear performance: implications for...

This paper examines sustainable development and tribological performance of fly ash reinforced AA8011 aluminium matrix composites by stir casting. Composites with 0, 4, 8 and 12 wt.% fly ash content were made and tested under dry sliding conditions using pin on disc apparatus. The Taguchi L16 orthogonal array with the aid of the multi-response optimization through the use of the Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) was used to analyze wear rate, frictional force, and coefficient of friction (COF). The experimental outcomes indicate that the wear rate was 0.00447-0.00813 mm³/m, 4.84-9.89 N frictional force, 0.228-0.711 Coefficient of Friction (COF). The best parameters were found to be 8 wt.% fly ash, 30 N load, 3 m/s sliding velocity and 3200 m sliding distance which gave a maximum Grey Relational Grade (GRG) of 0.831. The results of ANOVA showed that applied load had the greatest contribution (48.95%), and then followed by the sliding distance (23.57%), but fly ash content had a smaller but significant contribution (3.12%). The confirmatory test showed that there was a small error of 2.6% in the value of predicted and experimental GRG. SEM analysis revealed the shift towards the severe abrasive wear in the base alloy to the mild oxidative wear with the stable mechanically mixed layer in higher reinforcement level. The research confirms that the wear resistance with the use of fly ash is enhanced, and sustainable development of materials through the effective use of industrial waste is improved.