Study of Mechanical Behavior and Wear Characteristics of Aluminum Alloy 7178–Fly Ash Composites

Metal matrix compounds have gotten a lot of interest in the engineering community recently because of their better mechanical qualities than those of traditional materials. In order to meet the needs of a certain market, composites must be developed. A stir casting process has been used in this study to manufacture aluminum (7178) Metal Matrix Compounds supplemented over fly ash elements of varied compositions. Aluminum matrix composites with fly ash particles have better mechanical and wear characteristics. Fly ash is used to strengthen the aluminum alloy 7178 matrix to varying degrees (5, 10, 15, and 16 wt. percent). Mechanical parameters such as density, hardness, tensile, compressive, impact, and flexural strength have been evaluated in these composites. A large amount of slag formed during the casting process reduced the maximum content to 15 weight percent. Composites containing 16 percent fly ash showed more aggregation of fly ash elements. The wear’s habits of aluminum alloy 7178 matrix reinforced with 5,10, and 15 weight percent of fly ash reinforcement is estimated using pin on disc test. The rate of wear and the friction coefficient are considered as responses. For the three variables (load, time, and sliding velocity), the blueprints requires 20 trials involving 8 cubic points, 6 axial points, and 6 center points. Hence, it shows that \(15\text{\%}\) fly ash reinforcement is more suitable when compared to \(5, 10\text{\%}\) fly ash reinforcements. It is necessary to examine the worn surfaces of the materials under a variety of parameter combinations in order to determine the most prevalent wear processes. The wear process parameters are optimized using the order preference by similarity to ideal solution technique. The validation test has been conducted and the error obtained is within the permissible limit.