Wear Behavior of the Uniformly Dispersed Carbon Nanotube Reinforced 6061Al Composite Fabricated by Milling Combined with Powder Metallurgy

The uniformly dispersed carbon nanotubes (CNTs) reinforced 6061Al composites (CNT/6061Al) with different CNT concentrations were fabricated by powder metallurgy technology. It was found that the friction coefficient as well as wear rate decreased first and then increased as the CNT concentration increasing under 15 N as well as 30 N, and the minimum wear rate was achieved at the CNT concentration of 2 wt%. Adhesive wear and abrasive wear were the dominated wear mechanisms for the 1–2 wt% CNT/6061Al composites under 15 N and 30 N, while the delamination occurred on the wear surface at 3 wt% CNT. As the applied load increased to 60 N, the wear rate of composites increased dramatically. The wear mechanism transformed from abrasive wear to severe delamination wear, accompanied by the generation of wear debris with sharp edge due to the weaker anti-shearing strain capacity of CNT/6061Al composites.