Microstructure, mechanical and wear property correlation of Al bronze alloys

ABSTRACT

In the present work, the effect of Al content (0, 3, 5, 10, 15 wt-%) on the microstructure, mechanical and wear properties of Cu was systematically studied. Interestingly, the core–shell microstructure was observed in the Cu–Al alloys or Al bronzes with different layers of α-Cu, and intermetallic phases. The Cu–Al alloys displayed good compressive yield strength of 174–653 MPa, in particular, the Cu samples with Al (upto 10 wt-%) did not show fracture upto strain of 40%. Abrasion wear was the predominant wear mechanism in pure Cu and Cu–Al alloys after sliding against SiC. The Al addition to Cu drastically decreased the wear rate (198 ×10⁻³ to 3.8 ×10⁻³ mm³ N^–1m^–1) of Cu–Al alloys. The present work demonstrates the advantage of the addition of (5–10 wt-%) Al to Cu in achieving good combination of mechanical and wear properties of Cu–Al alloys.

KEYWORDS:

• Cu–Al alloys
• core–shell microstructure
• mechanical properties
• wear

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mahammad Ali Shaik

Dr. Mahammad Ali Shaik is working as Assistant Professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering, Vignan's Institute of Information Technology Visakhapatnam, India. He has published more than 10 SCI indexed journal papers in various reputed journals. His areas of research interest are powder metallurgy, alloys and composites, tribology and polymer composites.

Brahma Raju Golla

Dr. Brahma Raju Golla is working as Assistant Professor at Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology (NIT) Warangal, India. His research focuses on processing-structure-property correlation of Ultra High Temperature Ceramics, Advanced Materials Processing, and Tribology of Materials. So far Dr. Golla contributed 3 book chapters in Ceramic Handbooks, edited 1 Conference Proceedings and is author/coauthor of more than 48 archival research papers in peer reviewed international journals.