Investigation of abrasive wear behavior of industrial wastes on Al 6061 material using rubber wheel abrasion test (RWAT)

In this study, the abrading characteristics of the industrial slags, generated in the form of industrial waste during raw iron, steel and ferrochromium ore production, are investigated. Granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS), basic oxygen furnace slag (BOFS) ferrochromium slag (FCS) and commercial Al2O3 powder were used during the tests. Abrasion tests were conducted using Rubber Wheel Abrasion Wear (RWAT) method. Al 6061 was chosen as the counter body material. The tests were conducted under 25, 50, 75 and 100 N loads with 100 r/min rubber wheel rotational speed. The highest rate of abrasion was obtained from GBFS under all loads as a result of the conducted tests. Under high loads, the abrading performance of FCS reached that of the commercial Al2O3 powder. BOFS was found to have no abrading capability. Surface morphology and SPQ (spike parameter-quadratic fit) value were as effective as the particle hardness in the evaluation of abrading performance. As dominant wear mechanisms, spalling, ploughing and micro-scratch formation were observed on the specimens abraded with GBFS and Al2O3, whereas severe plastic deformation-induced extrusion was observed on the specimen abraded with FCS.