The main objective of present work is to thoroughly study the wear characteristics of aluminium/B4C/CNT hybrid composites under different load conditions. Current work is majorly aimed at the development of aluminium/B4C/CNT hybrid metal matrix composites. Aluminium metal matrix composites with boron carbide particle reinforcements are finding vast applications in underwater, aerospace and automobile applications. Here, the wear characteristics of composites developed through powder metallurgy has been investigated for different blends of the reinforcements. The results of an experimental investigation of the wear characteristics of reinforced aluminium alloy composites samples, processed by powder metallurgy route carried out as per ASTM standards on Ducom pin on Disc wear testing setup is reported in this paper. Each sample has varying blends of carbon nano tube [CNT (0.5– 2 wt%)], with boron carbide constituent kept constant at 5 wt%. Based on different wear regimes obtained after characterization of the samples at different load conditions, analysis of variance is carried out for each blend of the samples. The results have given sufficient substantiation to the fact that, wear rate decreases with the increase in the weight percentage of carbon nano tube blend in the aluminium matrix. The scholastic acumen garnered through the present work will suffice the needs of ever increasing demand for development of high performance composite materials. Wear results prove that micro-segregation (Coring) of boron carbide and compaction of carbon nano tube in the porous oil impregnated blend followed by suitable sintering will enhance its tribological characteristics by many folds. Keywords: Carbon nano tube, boron carbide, aluminium, powder metallurgy, Annova, blend, compactionCite this Article Gowda Ashwin C, Girish DP, Santhosh N, et al. Study of Wear Characteristics of Aluminium/B4C/CNT Hybrid Composites under the Influence of Controlled Factors. NanoTrends: A Journal of Nanotechnology and its Applications. 2016; 18(2): 21–32p.
