Mechanical and Optimization of Wear Characteristics of Aluminium Alloy Reinforced with Exfoliated Vermiculite Composite

Aluminium–silicon alloy composites have garnered significant interest due to their appealing mechanical and tribological attributes, making them particularly desirable for various automotive and marine applications. This study introduces exfoliated vermiculite (Aluminium-Magnesium-Silicates) as a reinforcement material. The damping characteristics of reinforcement particles exfoliated vermiculite (EV) were evaluated at frequencies (0.1 Hz, 1.0 Hz, and 10 Hz) and found superior to commonly used reinforcements. Employing the stir cast method, composites with varying EV particle reinforcements of 2%, 4%, and 6% by weight were fabricated. Microstructure analysis and microhardness tests were conducted on the fabricated workpieces, revealing an enhancement in hardness for 2% and 4% weight reinforcements compared to the unreinforced alloy, while a decrease in hardness for 6% weight reinforcement. Dry sliding wear studies were conducted under varying applied loads, velocities, and sliding distances. ‘Scanning Electron Microscopy’ (SEM) examinations of wear tracks unveiled that an increase in load correlated with a rise in wear rate, with the 4% reinforcement demonstrating improved wear resistance compared to other composites. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that all three chosen parameters for sliding wear tests were significant. PROMETHEE II has been used to convert the multi-objective problem into a single-objective function and optimized based on ranking.