Influence of hybrid nanoparticles on the wear behavior of aluminum alloy composites for aerospace applications

Purpose Engineers and scientists are searching for novel materials with high performance on all aspect points of view for the applications including marine, aero and automobile fields. AA8090 aluminum alloy is one of the materials used in aero industries for aircraft construction because of its weight reduction ability. However, the AA8090 alloy has a drawback such as low wear resistance that affects the life time of material; hence, it should be addressed. The purpose of this investigation is to improve the wear resistance of AA8090 alloy. Design/methodology/approach In this investigation, AA8090 aluminum alloy metal matrix composite was fabricated using different types of carbide nanoparticles such as vanadium carbide (VC), Cr 3 C 2 and Mo 2 C by stir casting method and tribological and mechanical behaviors were studied. Findings Mechanical studies showed that the S1 sample displayed the maximum hardness of 142 HV and maximum tensile strength of 857 MPa because of the inclusion of hard VC particles. Tribological studies revealed that S1 sample showed high performance. A least wear rate of 0.003915 × 10 –3 mm 3 /m was noted for S1 sample, which is 71% lower than the wear rate of S0 sample. Further, a least mass loss and lower coefficient of friction of 0.00152 g and 0.2, respectively, were observed for S1 sample because of its high hardness and high wear resistance because of the stuffing of high-hardness VC particles. Hence, it is concluded from this study that S1 sample, i.e. AA8090/VC, could be a better candidate for aerospace applications as it showed good tribological and mechanical properties. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is original and novel in the field of metal matrix composite which deals with the effect of hybridization on the wear performance of the aluminum alloy composites.