Wettability, Thermal and Sliding Behavior of Thermally Sprayed Fly Ash Premixed Red Mud Coatings on Mild Steel

The present experimental work reveals the surface characteristics like wettability, thermal and sliding wear behaviour of plasma-sprayed red mud (RM) coatings premixed with fly ash (FA). Varying weight % of FA (10, 20, 30 and 40)—RM composite powder is used as precursor for coating. Atmospheric plasma-sprayed coatings are developed at different operating power like 5 kW, 10 kW, 15 kW and 20 kW separately on mild steel substrate. Tribological behaviour viz. sliding wear properties are studied at distinct operating load (10N, 15N, 20N, 25N), speed (40 rpm, 50 rpm, 60 rpm, 70 rpm) and track diameter of 100 mm using a pin on disc tribometer for duration of 30 minutes with 3 minute gap period for each experiment. The DSC and TGA experiments of the coatings are performed to understand the high temperature application areas. The contact angle result signifies the wettability of the prepared coatings is principally a function of composition. The reaction of surface roughness and spraying power is in-significant on water contact angle (WCA). In conclusion, the sliding wear experiments are optimized by Taguchi method to ascertain the influencing parameter on wear.