An Investigation of Compaction Pressure on Tribological and Mechanical Properties of Powder Metallurgy-Based Non-equiatomic High Entropy Alloy

In this research work, a high entropy alloy (HEA) specimen was prepared using the powder metallurgy (PM) technique. A non-equiatomic high entropy alloy composition, Co20Cr25Fe20Mn25Al10, was selected for the experimental work to conduct microhardness and abrasive wear tests on the samples. Configurational entropy, atomic size difference and valence electron concentration (VEC) were the parameters to satisfy the validation criteria of a high entropy alloy system. Powder samples were compacted using the hydraulic press under varying compaction pressures of 400 MPa, 600 MPa and 800 MPa, respectively. To examine the microstructure, elemental composition, peak intensity and phases in the alloy powder, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques were employed, respectively. A higher wear resistance was revealed at 800 MPa and found to be 48.76% and 29.04% higher than 400 MPa and 600 MPa, respectively. The microhardness test showed a higher hardness value at 800 MPa compaction pressure, about 29.04% and 22.85% better than 400 MPa and 600 MPa, respectively.