A Tribological Study on NAB-Y2O3-CNT Composite prepared by the Powder Metallurgy Method

Nickel Aluminum Bronze (NAB) alloys display characteristics like superior strength and excellent wear resistance. In this work, NAB was reinforced using various volume fractions of yttrium (Y2O3) and/or carbon nanotube (CNT) particles prepared using the Powder Metallurgy (PM) method. General full factorial design was used in MiniTab19 software. The experimental results showed a significant influence of the Y2O3 and CNT particles on mechanical and physical properties. The optimal results were recorded for the sample having 6 vol.% of Y2O3 and 1.5 vol.% of CNT. This sample exhibited the highest effect on characteristics with hardness value of 288 Hv, porosity of 10.2%, surface roughness of 0.15 µm, average particle size of 37.55 µm, wear rate of 0.0000313 g/mm, and friction coefficient of 0.68. The results demonstrated that there is an improvement of 64% in microhardness in comparison with the base alloy. Porosity, surface roughness, wear rate, friction coefficient, and average grain size were reduced by 4%, 81%, 71%, 31%, and 24%, respectively.