MECHANICAL BEHAVIOUR OF ZN AND CU REINFORCEMENT IN AL-SIC COMPOSITE

International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering Research and Development (IJMPERD) ISSN (P): 2249–6890; ISSN (E): 2249–8001 Vol. 10, Issue 3, Jun 2020, 2551-2558 © TJPR Pvt. Ltd.

MECHANICAL BEHAVIOUR OF ZN AND CU REINFORCEMENT IN AL-SIC COMPOSITE MD. ABID ALI1, G. DURGA PRASAD2, B. RAGHU KUMAR3 & K. RAVI PRAKASH BABU4 1Department

of Mechanical Engineering, Potti Sriramulu Chalavadi Mallikarjuna Rao College of Engineering and Technology, Kothapeta, Vijayawada, India

2Department 3,4Department

of Mechanical Engineering, NRI Institute of Technology, Pothavarappadu, Agiripalli, India

of Mechanical Engineering, Prasad V. Potluri Siddhartha Institute of Technology, Kanuru, Vijayawada, India

ABSTRACT Aluminium based composite materials are commonly utilised in automobile and aerospace applications because of increased strength along with reduced weight. Many researchers have developed such composites using several reinforcements in order to attain desired mechanical properties. This paper presents mechanical behaviour of Zn and Cu reinforcement in Al-SiC composite within which one being2% or 4% and the other being 10%.Experiments are conducted to evaluate the various strengths and hardness of the composite. Also micro structure of the composite was observed to understand the grain size and its distribution. The study helps to decide preferable weight age of Zn and Cu that is necessary in the aluminium metal matrix composite to attain desired mechanical properties along with further reduction in weight of the application.

KEYWORDS: Aluminium Composite, Micro Structure, Strength & Hardness

Received: May 25, 2020; Accepted: Jun 15, 2020; Published: Jul 07, 2020; Paper Id.: IJMPERDJUN2020239

1. INTRODUCTION Now-a-days, in many engineering applications conventional metals are being replaced with metal matrix composite materials especially in aerospace and automobile industry. Aluminium metal matrix composites are mostly used because of their light weight for the advantage being improved performance and less fuel consumption. At the same time components have to be manufactured with materials of high strength as well. In that case aluminium metal matrix composites should be tested and studied for their mechanical behaviour and metallurgical aspects of the reinforcement added in the aluminium metal matrix. Most commonly used reinforcements are copper, zinc, nickel, aluminium, chromium and tungsten. Very small quantities of such reinforcements can improve the performance parameters of the material.

Generally composite materials are prepared either using solid, liquid or deposition processes in which casting is the most economical way of preparing aluminium metal matrix composite where reinforcement material is added into molten aluminium and is properly mixed using stirring process. In order to make aluminium composite by casting process, some ceramic particles like silicon carbide are added in it in orderto increase the fluidity and in turn increase hard ability with small amount of reduced ductility.In that case the optimised proportions of reinforcement and ceramic particles are evaluated to achieve an aluminium metal matrix composite with required mechanical properties for better functionality.

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Tao et al. [1] investigated mechanical properties and microstructure of Mge1.5Zne0.6Zr alloy and found that the mechanical and biocorrosion properties of the new alloy are better than the existing AZ9ID alloy. Pawar and Abhay [2] has developed Al metal matrix composite by adding SiC in the proportions varying from 2.5% to 10% with an increment of 2.5% and found that the hardness of the aluminium got enhanced with increased proportions of SiC and suggested this material can be suitable for manufacturing power transmission gears. Pranjal et al. [3] has conducted experiments with varying weight percentages and grain size of silicon carbide powder in aluminium. The results are found to be encouraging with the enhancement in mechanical properties except a little of ductility reduction. Madhusudan et.al [4] has compared the behaviour of the Al-Cu composite with that of the alloy of same composition. Sulaiman et.al [5] has examined the microstructure of Al-SiC composite and concluded that ultimate tensile strength is reduced due to weak composite interface and stiffness is increased because of strong interface of silicon carbide with aluminium. Kenneth and Bethel [6] has done studies to create a capability of quarry dust which may be complete or partial for the replacement of SiC in aluminium matrix composite.

Praveen kumar and Anil kumar [7] has introduced ash of bamboo leaf as reinforcement for aluminium alloy composites to enhance the properties and proved by verifying the mechanisms of tensile failure and wear of the composites from the SEM and surface morphologies of composites. PulkitGarg et.al [8] has reported the importance of developing the aluminium based composite materials in designing and manufacturing the lightweight components for aerospace industry.

And, a complete study of various techniques used for preparing these composites is presented. Rama Kanth et.al [9] has examined the mechanical and microstructural effects of reinforced hybrid particle when combined with Al-Zn alloy at room temperature. Mohapatra et.al [10] has prepared Al-Cu4.5% composite with 5%TiC reinforcement by friction stir process and evaluated tribological and mechanical properties.

This paper deals with mechanical characterization of the aluminium silicon carbide composite with zinc and copper as reinforcements. First, a standard composite is made with 60% of aluminium, 20% of silicon carbide particles, 10% of zinc and 10% of copper. Later, the proportions of zinc and copper are varied by keeping one being constant and other as variable. Experiments were performed in order to estimate the effect of the reinforcement on the material properties. Micro structural analysis is also found out in order to analyse the grain distribution in the composite.

2. MATERIALS A separate billet/powder of the materials i.e. aluminium, copper, zinc and silicon carbide are procured as shown in figure 1.

Aluminium is then melted in the crucible as shown in figure 2. A resistance wire is used in the furnace and heated continuously so that electric conductivity maintains the highest temperature required so that the materials can be easily melted.The billets of zinc and copper are machined into the powder form and are used as reinforcement material in the composite. Figure 3 shows red hot molten aluminium pouredinto the patterns of required proportions in whichparticles of silicon carbide, zinc and copper are added and then stirred properly for uniform mixing of the reinforcements in the melt.

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Figure 1: Billets of Aluminium, Copper, Zinc and Silicon Carbide Powder.

Figure 2: Melting of Aluminium.

Figure 3: Pouring of Molten Metal in the Patterns.

The solidified aluminium metal matrix composite billetsremoved from the dies are shown in figure 4. Even after complete solidification billetscan have the higher temperature so they are kept in atmospheric air for complete cooling.

Figure 4: Billets of the Composite.

3. METHODS 3.1 Tensile Test A standard dog bone shaped specimen is manufactured by machining the circular billets in order to fit into the holding

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grips of the universal tensile testing machine. The machining is properly done in order to avoid sharp edges in the specimen as shown in figure 5. Smooth edges of the specimen may prevent premature failure and inturn ensure no underestimating tensile strength.

Figure 5: Machining of Tensile Test Specimen.

3.2 Impact Test Sometimes materials are subjected to suddenly applied loads when they are in practice. This impact test is used to establish an understanding of amount of energy stored by the composite before fracture.

Figure 6: Cutting and Finishing of Notch in the Specimen.

A flat test specimen of 75x10x10mm with a notch across the larger surface is made as prepared as shown in figure 6. During the impact, the notch region of the specimen will have plastic deformation during which energy is absorbed before it gets hardened and finally fracture occurs.

3.3 Hardness Test To measure the hardness for the aluminium metal matrix composite,first the specimen is pressed with a carbide ball. The radius of the indentation made in the specimen is measured using microscope. Later hardness number is obtained by dividing the applied force with the indent surface area.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Micro Structure of the Aluminium Composite To conduct the metallographic analysis of the composite, samples are cut from the castings made of cylindrical shape.

These samples are fine polished by using abrasive solutions like Al oxide and diamond paste. Before observing the microstructure of the composite using optical microscope, samples are properly cleaned with water and dried completely.

Figures 7(a) and 7(b) shows the microstructure of the composite samples containing 2% and 4% of zinc whereas 8(a) and 8(b) shows the composite microstructure for 2% and 4% of copper. It can be clearly seen from the figures that there is uniform grain distribution of the particles.

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Figure 7.Grain size and distributionofZn–2% and Zn–4%

Figure 8.Grain size and distributionofCu–2% and Cu–4% 4.2 Tensile Properties Table 1 shows the evaluated values of tensile properties of aluminium composite with 2% and 4% of zinc. With the inclusion of zinc, composite experiences increase in both the ultimate and the yield strength for the 2% of zinc whereas percentage of elongation got reduced by 0.06%. Similarly, the resultsobtained from the experiments for aluminium composite with 2% and 4% of copper reinforcement are given in table 2.Inclusion of copper has reduced the strengths and also percentage elongation of the composite compared to zinc. Comparison of tensile properties for zinc and copper are shown in figures 9, 10 and 11 respectively.

Table 1: Tensile Properties of the Composite with Zinc as Reinforcement Ultimate Yield %Age of Composition Strength Strength Elo$ngation Al-78%, SiC-10%, Cu-10%, Zn-2% 124.5MPa 95.3MPa 0.48 Al-76%, SiC-10%, Cu-10%, Zn-4% 154.7MPa 120.28MPa 0.42 Table 2: Tensile Properties of the Composite with Copper as Reinforcement Ultimate Yield %Age of Composition Strength Strength Elongation Al-78%, SiC-10%, Cu-2%, Zn-10% 144.9MPa 110.4MPa 1.68 Al-76%, SiC-10%, Cu-4%, Zn-10% 127.6MPa 97.6MPa 1.46 4.3 Impact Strength Impact strength is increased for both the alloys as the percentage of copper and zinc are increased as shown in figure 12. In fact the value of impact strength is high for copper when compared to zinc 4.4 Hardness Forthe specimens with 2% and 4% of zinc and copper reinforcement in the aluminium metal matrix composite, hardness numbers are estimated. Brinell hardness test helps to find the influence of zinc or copper in the aluminium matrix for one being constant and other being varied in its proportion. An indentation was made using a steel ball by applying a load of 1000N. Figure 13 shows the hardness values of the composite in which increasing percentage of zinc increases the hardness whereas for copper for its increasing percentage decreases the hardness. www.tjprc.org

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Figure 9: Ultimate Strength of Al-SiC Composite.

Figure 10: Yield Strength of Al-SiC Composite.

Figure 11: Percentage Elongation of Al-SiC Composite.

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Figure 12: Impact Strength of Al-SiC Composite.

Figure 13: Brinell Hardness Number of Al-SiC Composite.

5. CONCLUSIONS Zinc and copper reinforced aluminium silicon carbide composites are prepared with one of which being 2% or 4% and other being 10%. The following are some of the conclusions drawn from the experiments conducted: 

Increase in tensile strength is obtained for the composite with 4% of zinc and 2% of copper and is same in the case of yield strength.



Percentage elongation is decreased for higher proportions of both zinc and copper which led to reduced ductility.



Impact strength of the composite is high for copper and is increasing with increasing proportions of both copper and zinc.

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For the increasing proportions of the reinforcement, hardness of the composite is increased for zinc and reduced for copper.

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Md. Abid Ali, G. Durga Prasad, B. Raghu Kumar & K. Ravi Prakash Babu Pawar, P.B.,&Utpat, A.A. (2014). Development of Aluminium Based Silicon Carbide Particulate Metal Matrix Composite for Spur Gear. 3rd International Conference on Materials Processing and Characterisation (ICMPC 2014), Procedia Materials Science, 6, 1150-1156

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