Experimental investigation on mechanical properties and wear characterization of Al-Si12CulMg1 aluminium alloy reinforced with titanium diboride and boron carbide particulate hybrid composites using stir casting process

LM13 aluminium alloy (Al−Si12CulMg1) with titanium diboride (TiB₂) and boron carbide (B₄C) particulate hybrid composites have been prepared using stir casting process. Wt% of titanium diboride is varied from 0–10 and constant 5 wt% boron carbide particles have been used to reinforce LM13 aluminium alloy. Microstructure of the composites has been investigated and mechanical properties viz., hardness, the tensile strength of composites have been analyzed. Wear behavior of samples has been tested using a pin on disc apparatus under varying load (20 N–50 N) for a sliding distance of 2000 m. Fracture and wear on the surface of samples have been investigated. Microstructures of composites show uniform dispersion of particles in LM13 aluminium alloy. Hardness and tensile strength of composites increased with increasing wt % of reinforcements. Dry sliding wear test results reveal that weight loss of composites increased with increasing load and sliding distance. Fracture on the surface of composites reveals that the initiation of crack is at the interface of the matrix and reinforcement whereas dimples are observed for LM13 aluminium alloy. Worn surface of composites shows fine grooves and delamination is observed for the matrix.     

Investigations on mechanical and tribological properties of Al-Si10-Mg alloy/sugarcane bagasse ash particulate composites

Aluminum metal matrix composites are a new generation of metal matrix composites that have the potential of sustaining the emerging demand for advanced engineering applications. These demands were satisfied due to massive mechanical and tribological properties of the aluminum hybrid composite material. In this work, abundantly available agricultural waste product (i.e., sugarcane bagasse ash) was used as a reinforcement material in AlSi10Mg alloy to enhance the alloy material properties for their better accomplishment in industrial applications. Initially, the chemical composition of the sugarcane bagasse ash particles was analyzed using Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy test, which revealed the presence of rich Silica content in the ash particles. Sugarcane bagasse ash particles of three different weight percentages (i.e., 6, 9, and 12%) are reinforced with aluminum alloy (AlSi10Mg) using stir casting process. The wear mechanisms and fractured morphology of the tensile tested specimen were analyzed with the aid of scanning electron microscopy. The result shows that the tensile, hardness, and impact strength were increased with increase in the weight percentage of sugarcane bagasse ash particles but ductility decreased when increasing the weight percentage. Further, dry sliding wear behavior of the fabricated composites was tested using Pin-on-Disc for three different loads (10 N, 20 N, 30 N). The wear rate and coefficient of friction for the hybrid matrix composites were found to be decreased while increasing the weight percentage of ash content, but they increase while increasing the applied load.     

Influence of reinforcing particles on microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir processed aluminium alloy AA7075-T651

This paper emphasis the improvement of mechanical properties of AA7075-T651 using friction stir processing through localized surface modification by adding nano boron carbide particles. The reinforcement techniques such as the groove and blind hole methods were used by changing reinforcements of nano boron carbide and a matrix of AA7075-T651 surface composites volume percentages (2 %, 4 %, and 6 %) along with tool rotational speed and processing speeds. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscope and x-ray diffraction analysis were used to examine the particle dispersion for the surface composites and to correlate with the enhanced mechanical properties. Results revealed that high input parameters have given grain coarsening and precipitate agglomeration and low input parameters provide poor nugget metal consolidation and no vertical material flow. The L9 orthogonal Array designed and optimized the process parameters for enhancing the surface properties of processed samples. Mechanical properties like ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, hardness, percentage of elongation and impact strength were evaluated for the groove friction stir processing method and blind-hole friction stir processing methods. From the results, it has been observed that the blind-hole technique resulted in higher hardness and the homogenous dispersion of nano boron carbide particles in the stir zone than the groove method. Consequently, for blind-hole friction stir processing, grey relational analysis (GRA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) approaches were proposed to optimise process parameters. From the compared optimization results between grey relational analysis and particle swarm optimization, particle swarm optimization approach was shown the best optimization results. Successively, the optimum condition in the respective experimentation is accomplished. Based on these observation and results, final validation tests were carried by changing the volume percentages of reinforcement keeping tool rotation speed and tool processing speed as constant. It is apparent that dynamic recrystallization in aluminium alloy at the processed zone due to presence of heterogeneous nucleation sites with nano boron carbide particles.