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Chemical And Structural Nature Of Tribo-Surface Of Aluminium-Sic Composites At Nanometre And Micrometre Length Scales

A.S. Md Abdul Haseeb

The worn surface of Al-SiC metal matrix composites (MMC) sliding against phenolic brake pad at a linear sliding speed of 1.62 m s-1 under contact pressures of 0.75-3.00 MPa in a pin-on-disc apparatus was investigated. XPS was used to extract information from the top few nanometres of the worn surface, while scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (SEM-EDX) provided information from within a few micrometres. Results reveal that the surface of Al-SiC undergoes significant chemical and physical changes during wear. The tribo-surface on Al-SiC is converted into a mixture that contains the constituents of Al-SiC and the phenolic …