THE WEAR PROPERTIES OF AN SIC-WHISKER-REINFORCED ALUMINUM COMPOSITE

The wear behaviour of an SiC-whisker-reinforced aluminium (SiC(w)-Al) composite is studied by comparative testing. The experimental results show that the SiC(w)-Al composite exhibits a fairly good wear resistance, especially for higher sliding velocities and/or higher loads in the test. The results are considered to be due to the high hardness of the SiC whiskers, the rotation of the SiC whiskers and the constraint of the SiC whisker in the aluminium matrix. It is also discovered by experiment that during the wear of oxides the wear volume of both the SiC(w)-Al composite and the aluminium is small, but the wear volume of the former is a little larger than that of the latter. The reason may be that the compactness of the oxide on the surface of the specimen is damaged because of the existence of the SiC whiskers.