Dry Sliding Wear Behaviour of Titanium (Grade 5) Alloy by Using Response Surface Methodology

The dry sliding wear behaviour of titanium (Grade 5) alloy has been investigated in order to highlight the mechanisms responsible for the poor wear resistance under different applied normal load, sliding speed, and sliding distance conditions. Design of experimental technique, that is, response surface methodology (RSM), has been used to accomplish the objective of the experimental study. The experimental plan for three factors at three levels using face-centre central composite design (CCD) has been employed. The results indicated that the specific wear rate increases with an increase in the applied normal load and sliding speed. However, it decreases with an increase in the sliding distance and a decrease in the sliding speed. The worn surfaces of the titanium alloy specimens were analyzed with the help of scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The predicted result also shows the close agreement with the experimental results and hence the developed models could be used for prediction of wear behaviour satisfactorily.