MOORA-Based Tribological Studies on Red Mud Reinforced Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites

This paper presents the findings of an experimental investigation on the effects of applied load, sliding velocity, wt.% of reinforcement and hardness of the counterface material in dry sliding wear studies performed on red mud-based aluminum metal matrix composites (MMC). The specific wear rate and the coefficient of friction are considered as the output quality characteristics. Taguchi-based L9 orthogonal array has been used to accomplish the objective of the experimental study. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is employed to find the optimal setting and the effect of each parameter on the output performance characteristics. It has been observed that optimal factor setting for each output performance is different. In order to minimize the two responses simultaneously, multiobjective optimization based on ratio analysis (MOORA) is adopted. MOORA revealed that the optimal combination of the dry sliding wear parameters for the multiperformance characteristics of the red mud based aluminium is the set normal load at 20 N, sliding velocity 3 m/s, % of reinforcement 20%, and counterface hardness of the material 58 HRC.