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Abstract
Aluminum metal matrix composites are widely used in aerospace and automotive industries due to favorable properties such as low weight and functionally graded properties obtained by incorporating different reinforcements. The present work is based on the analysis of dry sliding wear behavior and parametric optimization of aluminum composites reinforced with alumina, graphite, and boron carbide particles using Taguchi's technique. Specimens were prepared via a stir-casting process and optimal percentages of reinforcements were determined by Vickers microhardness tests. An L9 orthogonal array was selected and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to investigate the influence of wear parameters involving normal load, track diameter, and sliding distance on dry sliding wear of the developed composites. All three selected parameters were varied at three levels. The results revealed that lower values of graphite (3%) and boron carbide (1%) in combination with higher values (10%) of alumina as reinforcements contributed to the higher Vickers microhardness. ANOVA revealed that the p-value for normal load was 0.006 and was the most significant factor in the weight loss with a 65.05% contribution. Further, confirmatory tests were carried out to validate the optimized results and results obtained with optimum parameters were within ±5%.