Comparative study on effects of slurry erosive parameters on plasma sprayed flyash-Al2O3 and flyash-SiC composite coatings on Al6061 alloy

In this present investigation, an attempt has been made to study the potential use of plasma sprayed flyash-Al2O3 and flyash-SiC novel composite coatings on Al6061 alloys to mitigate slurry erosive wear. In this Taguchi's L27 statistical approach, the influence of various process parameters like, slurry concentration, slurry speed, impinging particle size and testing specimen on the slurry erosive wear in slurry with 3.5% NaCl solution were evaluated and analysed. The results obtained indicate that testing specimen and slurry concentration were greatly influencing on slurry erosive wear than slurry speed and particle size. Under all the test conditions studied, flyash-Al2O3 coatings on Al6061 alloy exhibited higher resistance to slurry erosive wear when compared with flyash-SiC coated and uncoated Al6061. Mathematical models were developed by means of regressive analysis to predict the slurry erosive wear of developed composite coatings. This will enable the predictive design of important products with the minimum of wastage and maximum utilisation of sustainable materials using environmentally friendly processes.