Experimental Investigation and Optimization of Dry Sliding Wear Parameters on Solid Lubricant Reinforced Bronze Matrix Composites - A Taguchi Approach

This present study aims to investigate the dry sliding wear behaviour of tungsten disulfide (WS2) particle reinforced bronze matrix composite against surface hardened steel and to discover the optimum wear parameter values such as applied load, sliding distance, sliding velocity and volume fraction of reinforcement to reduce the specific wear rate. The composite specimens were fabricated by liquid metallurgy route by varying the volume fraction of solid lubricant particles and prepared as per American Society for Testing of Materials (ASTM) G99-95. The experiments were carried out based on Taguchi design of experiments technique with L27 orthogonal array. The wear tests were conducted in pin-on disc wear testing machine for different loads - 20N, 40N and 60N, sliding velocities - 2.09m/s, 2.62 m/s and 3.14m/s and sliding distances of 600m, 1200m and 1800m in unlubricated conditions. The significant influence of wear parameters on sliding wear, interactions and optimum combination of wear parameter values to minimize the wear rate were obtained by signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results demonstrated that inclusion of tungsten disulfide particles decreased the wear rate of bronze and also the increases in amount of secondary phase increase the wear resistance of composites. The effect of solid lubricant particle on interfacial temperature was also studied and reported. It was found that percentage of solid lubricant and load are the most significant factors influencing the friction and wear properties of composites. The results revealed that, WS2 particle reinforced bronze matrix composites were the potential component can be replaced for pure bronze products in wear resistance applications.