A study on mechanical and tribological behaviour of alumina filled AA5754 composites using Taguchi experimental design Swadhin Kumar Patel a , Sumanta Panda b , Narasingh Deep b , Layatitdev Das b , Manisha Priyadarshini c a Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769008, India b Department of Mechanical Engineering, Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Burla 768018, India c Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769008, India article info Article history: Received 1 January 2020 Received in revised form 18 February 2020 Accepted 24 February 2020 Available online xxxx Keywords: Metal matrix composite Stir-casting method Sliding wear Taguchi method GRA abstract Aluminium alloy-based metal matrix composites (AMMCs) have been considered as a potential material in various engineering and industrial applications due to their excellent combination of physical, mechanical and tribological properties. Reinforcing with different filler materials into the metallic matrix improves the hardness, stiffness, specific strength, wear resistance and fatigue properties of the materials in contrast with the conventional materials. The characteristics of aluminium alloy-based composite solely depend upon the type of fillers, interfacial bonding and different processing parameters. In this work, metal matrix composites have been fabricated by reinforcing Al 2 O 3 in AA5754 matrix employing stir casting method. Mechanical characterisation, as well as the sliding wear test were carried out. The effect of the varying process parameters on the sliding wear properties has been investigated using Taguchi method and Grey Relational Analysis (GRA). Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2nd International Conference on Processing and Characterization of Materials. 1. Introduction MMC (metal matrix composite) are the composite of metals reinforced with other metal, ceramics or organic compound. The MMCs are prepared by dispersing different fillers into the metal matrices. Aluminium and its alloy have garnered utmost interest as a base metal in the field of metal matrix composite [1]. Aluminium-based metal matrix composites have extensive appli- cation in aircraft, automobile and other industrial fields [2]. The reinforcements were so chosen that they are stable in elevated temperature and non-reactive to the host materials. The common reinforcing materials for metal matrix composites are Silicon Car- bide (SiC) and Aluminum Oxide (Al 2 O 3 ). The tensile properties, hardness, density and the wear properties of Al and its alloys are enhanced significantly by the reinforcement of SiC [3–4]. The par- ticles dispersion play an essential role in improving the properties of Al-based MMC. Aluminium oxide filler has superior compressive strength and wear resistance. Many authors have reported about the microstructural study of powder metallurgy processed unmilled AlMg5 (AlMg5-UM), milled AlMg5 (AlMg5-M), and milled AlMg5-0.4 vol% Al 2 O 3 (AlMg5-0.4Al 2 O 3 ) nanocomposite prepared via spark plasma sintering and found that the hardness and ultimate tensile strength are increased significantly [5]. Vari- ous fabrication techniques have been reported for fabrication of the metal matrix composite as the fabrication process influence the overall material properties of the composite. The stir casting method is suitable for improving the mechanical properties of the composites [6–8]. The addition of graphite in aluminium increases the tensile strength and elastic modulus, but the hard- ness is decreased [9]. In this work, metal matrix composites have been fabricated by reinforcing Al 2 O 3 in AA5754 matrix employing stir casting method. Mechanical characterisation as well as the sliding wear test has been carried out. The effect of the process variables on the sliding wear properties has been investigated using Taguchi method and Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) Table 1. AA5754 is an Mg-rich aluminium alloy which is generally used in ship haul and tread plate flooring applications. So frictional wear criteria is an important area of study for this alloy. Many research works have been done for 6000 and 7000 series aluminium matrix composites with various filler materials which shows the lack research activity on 5000 series. Therefore AA5754 has been con- sidered for this research to explore and enhance its frictional wear property. Compared to other fillers, Al 2 O 3 has excellent compatibil- ity with the aluminium matrix composites. So the combination of https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.857 2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2nd International Conference on Processing and Characterization of Materials. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr Please cite this article as: S. Kumar Patel, S. Panda, N. Deep et al., A study on mechanical and tribological behaviour of alumina filled AA5754 composites using Taguchi experimental design, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.857