Mechanics, Materials Science & Engineering, May 2017
ISSN 2412-5954
An Assessment of Mechanical and Tribological Property of Hybrid Aluminium Metal Matrix Composite17 R. Santosh Kumar1, R. Nishanth1, V. Seenivasan1 , S. Sarath Sanmugam1, S. Johny James1, a 1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kingston Engineering College, Vellore, 632059, India
a
johnyjames2002@yahoo.com DOI 10.2412/mmse.30.1.536 provided by Seo4U.link
Keywords: composition of reinforcement, EDM, metal matrix.
ABSTRACT. Composite materials has huge requirement in the area of automobile, aerospace, and wear resistant applications. This study presents the synthesis of composite reinforced with SiC and Al 2O3 using gravity stir casting. Stir casting is the manufacturing process that is incorporated to produce the composite material because of its extreme bonding capacity with base material. The composition of reinforcement with 6061 aluminium matrix is SiC -7.5% and Al2O3 2.5% respectively. The average size of reinforcement particle is 30-40 microns. The synthesised composite casting is machined using EDM to prepare specimens for various tests. Microstructure study was carried and the microstructure images prove the existence and dispersion of reinforcement particles in the metal matrix. There is no visible porosity is observed. The hardness of the specimen is tested using Vickers hardness tester and found considerable increase when compare with parent alloy Al 6061. Also mechanical and tribological properties of hybrid Aluminium metal matrix composite were employed. The fortifying material, Silicon Carbide is composed of tetrahedral of carbon and silicon atoms with strong bonds in crystal lattice along with its excellent wear resistance property and alumina have high strength and wear resistance. To avoid enormous material wastage and to achieve absolute accuracy, wire-cut EDM process is capitalised to engrave the specimen as per required dimensions. Three Tensile test specimens were prepared, in order to achieve reliability in results as per ASTM- E8 standard, and the values were tabulated. Impact test was carried out and the readings were tabulated. Wear test was carried out using pin on disc wear test apparatus and the results show considerable increase in wear resistant property when compare with parent alloy Al6061.The above work proves the successful fabrication of composite and evaluation of properties.
Introduction. The dawning of any component begins with the significant selection of material. In the bygone days there is a lot of fascination towards materials that are having good mechanical and combination of different materials, it could be a metal, ceramics, [1].Aluminium metal matrix composite emerged from the need of lighter weight, higher performance characteristics in aerospace, automobile industries etc. Aluminium metal matrix composite replaces conventional aluminium alloys due to its high wear resistance, lower thermal expansion and higher strength to weight ratio[2].Silicon carbide is preferred because of its excellent refractory property and fatigue resistance. In the work of Bhoopathi adding of silicon carbide results in increase of hardness and density.[3]Among the various manufacturing process available for the production of discontinuous metal matrix composite, stir casting is widely accepted due to its large flexibility, simplicity and higher bonding ratio [4]. The various mechanical properties are available among which the tensile, impact, hardness test are widely used. Wear test was carried out and increase in wear resistant property was reported due to addition of SiC has been reported by SJ James. Tribological property is studied to analyse the science behind two interacting surfaces. [5-7]. In this assessment an effort has been taken to assess the mechanical and tribological properties of hybrid aluminium metal matrix which is developed using stir casting mixing reinforcement SiC and Al2O3 respectively.
Published by Magnolithe GmbH. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
MMSE Journal. Open Access www.mmse.xyz
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