- Email: [email protected]
A comprehensive review on mechanical properties of Al-B4C stir casting fabricated composite
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr
A comprehensive review on mechanical properties of Al-B4C stir casting fabricated composite Akhileshwar Nirala a,⇑, S. Soren a, Navneet Kumar b, D.R. Kaushal c a
Department of Fuel and Mineral Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad 826004, India Department of Mechanical Engineering, Galgotias College of Engineering and Technology, Greater Noida 201310, India c Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi 110016, India b
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 21 May 2019 Received in revised form 17 September 2019 Accepted 27 September 2019 Available online xxxx Keywords: Stir casting Boron carbide AMMCs Mechanical and tribological properties Stir Casting CTE
a b s t r a c t Present study emphasizes the recent developments in aluminium metal matrix hybrid composites which is used widely in aerospace and automobile engineering due to low wear rate, low thermal expansion, high hardness and strength properties. Present review paper discuss over mechanical as well as tribological properties of Al-B4C composites fabricated through stir casting route. Aluminium metal matrix composites (AMMCs) are establishing extensive thought for realistic as well as essential reasons for tribological importance. Moreover, for superior properties in AMMCs, very limited experimental data is available because of the difficulties in the homogeneous mixing of reinforcements in composite. In this study, effect of B4C on Aluminium/aluminium alloy matrix has been reviewed and the future scope has been presented. Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Mechanical and Energy Technologies.
1. Introduction Aluminium is used as a matrix phase in Aluminum metal matrix composites (AMMCs) and as a reinforcements metal, ceramic or/and organic compound used extensively. Reinforcements are used to enhance these properties of composite such as density, hardness, strength, wear resistance and stiffness because special applications of the metal cannot be fulfilled without reinforcement. Aluminium metal matrix composites (AMMCs) are using widely in various industries such as aerospace, automobiles and many more. Researchers are motivated by better density, strength to weight ratio, hardness, high strain rate and low wear rate of AMMCs to further work and improved any availability [1,2]. AMMCs were used widely and it is the best replacement of piston materials of nickel cast iron in conformist diesel engine due to high strength to weight ratio, minimum corrosion and comparatively cheaper. Aluminium based composites were used in a base of the electronic equipments for heat sinks and safe over heating [3,4]. Boron nitride and carbide (BN and B4C), Silicon oxide and carbide (SiO2 and SiC), titanium di-boride, oxide and carbide (Tib2, TiO2 and TiC), alumina (Al2O3), magnesium oxide (MgO) etc. are ⇑ Corresponding author.
reinforced in pure aluminium/aluminium alloys to enhance mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile/yield strength and wear resistance [5]. Tribological (wear or abrasion) properties of the AMMCs are improved by reinforcement of ceramics. There are two types of reinforcement as soft (graphite, metals/alloys etc.) and hard (SiC, Al2O3, WC, TiO2, TiB2 etc.) which influenced their abrasion properties. It has been found that abrasion resistance increases by reinforcing of hard or soft reinforced but shown effectively more in the case of hard reinforcements [6]. Limited research has reported on AMMCs of reinforcements with B4C, WC etc compared to Al2O3, SiC etc. due to their higher cost. Mechanical properties have reported successively higher by using of the hard reinforcements and improved wear resistance [1]. Wear resistance of unreinforced aluminium were approximately 1/10th of boron carbide reinforced aluminium metal matrix composites in some load ranges, which is used widely in disc drive actuators, armor plates and disk substrates of ballistic efficient because it has higher density compared with other reinforcements such as SiC, Alumina etc. All these properties confirmed for bullet proof jacket and armor tank [7,8,9,10]. Some of the authors have reported about nano-composite which exhibits better elastic modulus and yield strength when reinforcing it with carbon-based nano-materials [11].
E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Nirala). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.09.172 2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Mechanical and Energy Technologies.
Please cite this article as: A. Nirala, S. Soren, N. Kumar et al., A comprehensive review on mechanical properties of Al-B4C stir casting fabricated composite, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.09.172
2
A. Nirala et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Present study is required to explore more and more due to poor wetting properties to the aluminium matrix, cost effective, high demand of thermal stability, and good mechanical and tremendous chemical properties of boron Carbide reinforced AMMCs. The main objectives of present review paper are to discuss the effect of reinforcement as B4C on Aluminium for various properties such as mechanical and tribological properties, when aluminium matrix composite is fabricated by Stir casting route.
2. Fabrication method AMMCs are distinguished due to their better mechanical, corrosion and thermal stability and these properties are influenced by homogeneous mixing of reinforcement throughout volume. The properties of the AMMCs depend upon solidification rate, wetting properties of the reinforcement and the homogeneous mixing. Homogeneous distribution achieved when mechanical stirrer is used. Stir casting process is one of them which distributed reinforcements uniformly throughout the volume. This method allows fabricating composite up to 30% volume fraction in composites. Homogeneous mixing in the molten aluminium matrix confirmed mechanical stirrer design, stirring depth in melt, molten metal temperature and the wetting properties of particulate materials [10]. During solidification settling of reinforcements are associated segregation problem in stir casting and this problem has been overcome to use squeeze stir casting methods [11]. The recent development adopted two step mixing process due to remove the gaseous layer around the reinforcements. In first step matrix materials heated above the liquidus temperature and then cooled between the temperature range of liquidus and solidus, and then preheated particulate materials mixed in semisolid phase. Semi-solid phase heated above the liquidus temperature and mixed with the help of stirrer in Second step as shown in Fig. 1 [12].
Fig. 1. Stir Casting setup for AMMCs fabrication.
3. Mechanical and tribological properties 3.1. Mechanical properties The mechanical properties of AMMCs varied such as particulate morphology such as shape, size and the chemical properties. Some of the authors have investigated the effect of grain or particulate size on micro hardness of the reinforced composite fabricated through stir casting methods [10,13]. Some of the authors were reported better mechanical properties of 15 vol% of boron carbide reinforced metal matrix composites such as yield/ultimate tensile strength and hardness with compared to pure Al but ductility decreases by increasing the B4C reinforcing [14]. Table 1 indicates the yield strength, ultimate tensile strength increases by increasing B4C particulate in AL6061 and AL2124 aluminium alloy. In the case of AL6061, yield strength increased 101– 369 MPa and ultimate tensile strength increased by 206–416 MPa but in the same time ductility decreases by increasing B4C reinforcing in AMMCs. Same effect has shown for AL2124, yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) increases from 315 to 381 MPa and 421 to 511 MPa respectively by increasing of B4C reinforcement but ductility decreases by increasing the reinforcement B4C. Therefore, it confirmed that in the case of B4C reinforcement mechanical properties increases by increasing the particulate [15,16]. Some of the authors have added 5, 10 and 15 wt% of B4C in pure Al, Macro hardness and Micro hardness both of them increased by increasing the wt% of reinforcements. So the variation of BHN and VHN is from 34.48 to 58.6 and 51.3 to 80.8 respectively and ultimate tensile strength 185 to 215 MPa as shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b). Mechanical properties such as hardness and tensile strength improved by increasing the volume fraction of B4C particulate in aluminium alloy matrix (AL356) and formed widely applicable hybrid composites. Authors have also investigated that volume fraction of porosity level increases with increasing reinforcement and those porosity much affecting required properties but mechanical properties improved at the same time [18,19]. Mechanical properties could be improved satisfactory more if porosity reduced up to minimum level and that will be future scope for researchers always. Authors were studied Titanium chloride and boride (TiC and TiB2) reaction layers formed with addition of Potassium titanium fluoride (K2TiF6) flux and solved the wetting issue in B4C reinforcement at 858 °C. Ti could not formed effective bonding to the particulate materials B4C that’s why it has poor wetting properties in aluminium/aluminium alloy matrix phase [20]. Al-B4C with graphite reinforced composite shows hardness decreases with increasing the graphite reinforcement. Micrograph and others required materials properties of Al7075-T651 with 4 vol% B4C had studied, and found that average hardness was 3/2 times higher than that of the base matrix aluminum alloy [21,22]. Hybrid composite of Al6061 reinforced with 11 wt% B4C have produced by conventional stir casting method where melting of the metal done at 750 °C. Authors have got better mechanical properties such as hardness, yield and ultimate tensile strength of hybrid composite than unreinforced aluminium alloy but at the same time ductility
Table 1 Variation of mechanical properties by addition of reinforcements. S. No.
Alloy composition
YS/MPa
UTS/MPa
%El
Ref. no.
1 2 3 4
AL6061/B4C/10p AL 6061/B4C/20p AL2124/B4C/15p AL2124/B4C/25p
101 369 315 381
206 416 421 511
6.9 0.034 0.021 0.022
[15] [16] [16] [16]
Please cite this article as: A. Nirala, S. Soren, N. Kumar et al., A comprehensive review on mechanical properties of Al-B4C stir casting fabricated composite, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.09.172
A. Nirala et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
(a)
3
(b)
Fig. 2. (a) Variation of micro and macro hardness on B4C reinforcement; (b) Variation of tensile strength on B4C particulates [17].
Fig. 3. (a) Mean Micro hardness on amount of B4C particulates, (b) Variation of Yield/Ultimate Tensile Strength and % elongation with the amount of B4C particulates in Al6061 Matrix [24].
decreases as shown in Fig. 3(a) and (b). Strength of the composites was improved by 44.35% and 42.6% of yield and UTS respectively [24]. Authors were observed that the Compressive strength improved from 330 N/mm2 to 355 N/mm2 for 7 wt% and 9 wt% of B4C particles respectively. It has been studied for Al6061 alloy after addition
of B4C [23]. The comparative studies have been done for Al7075 and Al6061 alloy matrix hybrid composite. And found that Al7075 alloy matrix hybrid has high hardness and better ductility properties than Al6061 alloy matrix hybrid [19]. Fig. 4(a) shows the effective elastic modulus at room temperature, 100 °C and 200 °C temperatures for 4, 8, and 12 vol% B4C rein-
Fig. 4. (a) Elastic moduli at different temperature, (b) Coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) with respect of temperature [25].
Please cite this article as: A. Nirala, S. Soren, N. Kumar et al., A comprehensive review on mechanical properties of Al-B4C stir casting fabricated composite, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.09.172
4
A. Nirala et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
forced composites. And it decreases with increasing temperature and higher for 12 vol% reinforced composite and this is why, because boron carbide has higher moduli than aluminium at high temperature. But by increasing temperature and reinforcement, coefficient of thermal expansion increases and have maximum for lower reinforced in the temperature range of 50 °C to 500 °C which is showed in Fig. 4(b). 3.2. Tribological properties Study of tribological properties results the abrasion or wear resistance of the materials. Higher the wear/abrasion resistance imposed for less materials loss in working environment of the designed fabricated parts. Authors have studied the reciprocal sliding wear resistance of AMMCs where B4C is used as reinforcing materials. They have investigated that increasing the B4C reinforcement in aluminium matrix; increases wear resistance of the composite. B4C reinforced aluminum alloy matrix composites were investigated for reciprocal dry sliding wear behavior and concluded that volume fraction is the most important factor for coefficient of friction or wear rate along with velocity and load on composite [8,24]. Boron carbide reinforced AMMCs investigated tribological behavior under dry sliding motion which is fabricated through stir casting route. Load has the major role to influence the (coefficient of friction) COF and wear rate. Determination of the wear rate followed by sliding speeds and distance load has major factor (47.4%) where COF (44.1%) affected by distance followed by sliding speed and load [26]. Authors were also studied that abrasive wear properties and improved by addition of B4C particulate in Al2024 than unreinforced Al2024 alloy. Abrasion or wear resistance increased by increasing reinforced particulate and their size. The harder boron carbide particulates grant the key role for high wear resistance of the composite [27]. Experimental investigation on mechanical behavior of aluminium hybrid composites were studied, and observed that 10 wt% B4C with 5 wt% graphite reinforced composite have much better wear resistance compared to the base aluminium alloy matrix [28]. 4. Conclusion Aluminium/aluminium alloy- B4C with or without other particulates/reinforcements composite material studied briefly and it concluded that, AMMCs reinforced with B4C and others have found properties than unreinforced metals and their alloys. Mechanical as well as wear/abrasion resistance improved by adding of reinforcements in aluminium/aluminium alloy matrix materials. VHN and BHN, yield and ultimate tensile strength and abrasion/ wear resistance enhanced by reinforcement of B4C Extra squeezing action in stir casting process overcomes the porosity than conventional stir casting process. Thermal stability increases by increasing reinforcement.
[2] Aykut Canakci, Fazli Arslan, E. Ibrahim Yasar, Pre-treatment process of B4C particles to improve incorporation into molten AA2014 alloy, J. Mater. Sci. 42 (2007) 9536–9542. [3] Kirity Bhusan Khana, T.R.G. Kutty, M.K. Surappa, Hot hardness and indentation creep study on Al–5% Mg alloy matrix–B4C particle reinforced composites, Mater. Sci. Eng., A 427 (2006) 76–82. [4] V. Auradi, G.L. Rajesh, S.A. Kori, Processing of B4C particulate reinforced 6061 aluminium matrix composites by melt stirring involving two step addition, Proc. Mater. Sci. 6 (2014) 1068–1076. [5] Wu. Chuandong, Pan Fang, Guoqiang Luo, Fei Chen, Qiang Shen, Lianmeng Zhang, Enrique J. Lavernia, Effect of plasma activated sintering parameters on microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-7075/B4C composites, J. Alloy. Compd. 615 (2014) 276–282. [6] A. Canakci, F. Arslan, Abrasive wear behaviour of B4C particle reinforced Al2024 MMCs, Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol. 63 (2012) 785–795. [7] Jinkwan Jung, Shinoo Kang, Advances in manufacturing boron carbidealuminium composite, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 1 (87, 2004,) 47–54. [8] Harun Mindivan, Reciprocal sliding wear behaviour of B4C particulate reinforced aluminum alloy composites, Mater. Lett. 64 (2010) 405–407. [9] M.V. Gorshenkov, S.D. Kaloshkin, V.V. Tcherdyntsev, V.D. Danilov, V.N. Gulbin, Dry sliding friction of Al-based composites reinforced with various boroncontaining particles, J. Alloys Compounds 536S (2012) S126–S129. [10] Himanshu Kala, K.K.S. Mer, Sandeep Kumar, A Review on mechanical and Tribological behaviors of stir cast Aluminium matrix composite, Proc. Mater. Sci. 6 (2014) 1951–1960. [11] Kwangmin Choi, Se-eun Shin, Donghyun Bae, Hyunjoo Choi, Mechanical properties of aluminium-based nanocomposite reinforced with fullerenes, Light Metals (2014) 1437–1440. [12] Neeraj Kumar Sharma, R.K. Misraa, Satpal Sharmaa, Experimental characterization and numerical modeling of thermo-mechanical properties of Al-B4C composites, Ceram. Int. 43 (1 part A) (2016) 513–522. [13] C. Saravanan, K. Subramanian, D.B. Shivakumar, M. Sathyanadhan, R. Shankara Narayanan, Fabrication of Aluminium Metal Matrix Composite, ISSN: 09742115. [14] U.B. Gopal Krishna, K.V. Sreenivas Rao, B. Vasudeva, Effect of boron carbide reinforcement on aluminium matrix composites, IJMMSE 3 (1) (2013) 41–48. [15] M.F. Ibrahim, H.R. Ammar, A.M. Samuel, M.S. Soliman, A. Almajid, F.H. Samuel, Mechanical properties and fracture of Al- 15 vol% B4C based metal matrix composites, Int. J. Cast Metal Res. 27 (1) (2014). [16] B.H. Kear, J.M. Oblak, A.F. Giamei, Metall. Trans. A 1A (1970) 2477–2486. [17] N. Tsangarakis, B. Taleghani, Army Research Laboratory, 1992. [18] K. Kalaiselvan, N. Murugan, V. Siva Parameswaran, Production and characterization of AA6061–B4C stir cast composite, Mater. Des. 32 (2011) 4004–4009. [19] A. Mazahery, M.O. Shabani, E. Salahi, M.R. Rahimipour, A.A. Tofigh, M. Rajavi, Hardness and tensile strength study on Al356-B4C Composite, Mater. Sci. Technol. 22 (5) (2012). [20] Ali Mazahery, Mohsen Ostad Shabani, Mechanical properties of squeeze-cast A356 composites reinforced with B4C particulates, JMEPEG 21 (2012) 247– 252. [21] F. Toptan, A. Kilicarslan, I. Kerti, The effect of Ti addition on the properties of Al-B4C interface, Mater. Sci. Forum 636–637 (2010) 192–197. [22] C. Muthazhagan, A. Gnanavel Babu, G.B. Bhaskar, K. Rajkumar, Influence of graphite reinforcement on mechanical properties of aluminum-boron carbide composites, Adv. Mater. Res. 845 (2014) 398–402. [23] R. Ramesh, N. Murugan, Microstructure and metallurgical properties of aluminium 7075 – T651 Alloy / B4C 4% Vol. surface composite by friction stir processing, Adv. Mater. Manuf. Charact. 3 (1) (2013). [24] Pradeep V Badiger, Virupaxi Auradi, G.L. Rajesh, Vijaykumar Hiremath, Investigation on mechanical properties of B4C particulate reinforced Al6061 metal matrix composites, Int. J. Appl. Eng. Res. 10 (71) (2015), ISSN 0973-4562. [25] Neeraj Kumar Sharma, R.K. Misraa, Satpal Sharmaa, Finite element modeling of effective thermomechanical properties of Al–B4C metal matrix composites, J. Mater. Sci. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-0435-1. [26] F. Toptan, I. Kerti, L.A. Rocha, Reciprocal dry sliding wear behavior of B4C preinforced aluminium alloy matrix composites, Wear 290–291 (2012) 74–85. [27] N. Siddhartha Prabhakar, N. Radhika, R. Raghu, Analysis of tribological behavior of Aluminum/B4C Composite under dry sliding motion, Procedia Eng. 97 (2014) 994–1003. [28] A. Canakci, F. Arslan, T. Varol, Effect of volume fraction and size of B4C particles on production and microstructure properties of B4C reinforced aluminium alloy composites, Mater. Sci. Technol. 29 (8) (2013).
References [1] A. Baradeswaran, A. Elaya Perumal, Influence of B4C on the tribological and mechanical properties of Al 7075–B4C composites, Compos. B Eng. 54 (2013) 146–152.
Please cite this article as: A. Nirala, S. Soren, N. Kumar et al., A comprehensive review on mechanical properties of Al-B4C stir casting fabricated composite, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.09.172
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr
A comprehensive review on mechanical properties of Al-B4C stir casting fabricated composite Akhileshwar Nirala a,⇑, S. Soren a, Navneet Kumar b, D.R. Kaushal c a
Department of Fuel and Mineral Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad 826004, India Department of Mechanical Engineering, Galgotias College of Engineering and Technology, Greater Noida 201310, India c Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi 110016, India b
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 21 May 2019 Received in revised form 17 September 2019 Accepted 27 September 2019 Available online xxxx Keywords: Stir casting Boron carbide AMMCs Mechanical and tribological properties Stir Casting CTE
a b s t r a c t Present study emphasizes the recent developments in aluminium metal matrix hybrid composites which is used widely in aerospace and automobile engineering due to low wear rate, low thermal expansion, high hardness and strength properties. Present review paper discuss over mechanical as well as tribological properties of Al-B4C composites fabricated through stir casting route. Aluminium metal matrix composites (AMMCs) are establishing extensive thought for realistic as well as essential reasons for tribological importance. Moreover, for superior properties in AMMCs, very limited experimental data is available because of the difficulties in the homogeneous mixing of reinforcements in composite. In this study, effect of B4C on Aluminium/aluminium alloy matrix has been reviewed and the future scope has been presented. Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Mechanical and Energy Technologies.
1. Introduction Aluminium is used as a matrix phase in Aluminum metal matrix composites (AMMCs) and as a reinforcements metal, ceramic or/and organic compound used extensively. Reinforcements are used to enhance these properties of composite such as density, hardness, strength, wear resistance and stiffness because special applications of the metal cannot be fulfilled without reinforcement. Aluminium metal matrix composites (AMMCs) are using widely in various industries such as aerospace, automobiles and many more. Researchers are motivated by better density, strength to weight ratio, hardness, high strain rate and low wear rate of AMMCs to further work and improved any availability [1,2]. AMMCs were used widely and it is the best replacement of piston materials of nickel cast iron in conformist diesel engine due to high strength to weight ratio, minimum corrosion and comparatively cheaper. Aluminium based composites were used in a base of the electronic equipments for heat sinks and safe over heating [3,4]. Boron nitride and carbide (BN and B4C), Silicon oxide and carbide (SiO2 and SiC), titanium di-boride, oxide and carbide (Tib2, TiO2 and TiC), alumina (Al2O3), magnesium oxide (MgO) etc. are ⇑ Corresponding author.
reinforced in pure aluminium/aluminium alloys to enhance mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile/yield strength and wear resistance [5]. Tribological (wear or abrasion) properties of the AMMCs are improved by reinforcement of ceramics. There are two types of reinforcement as soft (graphite, metals/alloys etc.) and hard (SiC, Al2O3, WC, TiO2, TiB2 etc.) which influenced their abrasion properties. It has been found that abrasion resistance increases by reinforcing of hard or soft reinforced but shown effectively more in the case of hard reinforcements [6]. Limited research has reported on AMMCs of reinforcements with B4C, WC etc compared to Al2O3, SiC etc. due to their higher cost. Mechanical properties have reported successively higher by using of the hard reinforcements and improved wear resistance [1]. Wear resistance of unreinforced aluminium were approximately 1/10th of boron carbide reinforced aluminium metal matrix composites in some load ranges, which is used widely in disc drive actuators, armor plates and disk substrates of ballistic efficient because it has higher density compared with other reinforcements such as SiC, Alumina etc. All these properties confirmed for bullet proof jacket and armor tank [7,8,9,10]. Some of the authors have reported about nano-composite which exhibits better elastic modulus and yield strength when reinforcing it with carbon-based nano-materials [11].
E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Nirala). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.09.172 2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Mechanical and Energy Technologies.
Please cite this article as: A. Nirala, S. Soren, N. Kumar et al., A comprehensive review on mechanical properties of Al-B4C stir casting fabricated composite, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.09.172
2
A. Nirala et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Present study is required to explore more and more due to poor wetting properties to the aluminium matrix, cost effective, high demand of thermal stability, and good mechanical and tremendous chemical properties of boron Carbide reinforced AMMCs. The main objectives of present review paper are to discuss the effect of reinforcement as B4C on Aluminium for various properties such as mechanical and tribological properties, when aluminium matrix composite is fabricated by Stir casting route.
2. Fabrication method AMMCs are distinguished due to their better mechanical, corrosion and thermal stability and these properties are influenced by homogeneous mixing of reinforcement throughout volume. The properties of the AMMCs depend upon solidification rate, wetting properties of the reinforcement and the homogeneous mixing. Homogeneous distribution achieved when mechanical stirrer is used. Stir casting process is one of them which distributed reinforcements uniformly throughout the volume. This method allows fabricating composite up to 30% volume fraction in composites. Homogeneous mixing in the molten aluminium matrix confirmed mechanical stirrer design, stirring depth in melt, molten metal temperature and the wetting properties of particulate materials [10]. During solidification settling of reinforcements are associated segregation problem in stir casting and this problem has been overcome to use squeeze stir casting methods [11]. The recent development adopted two step mixing process due to remove the gaseous layer around the reinforcements. In first step matrix materials heated above the liquidus temperature and then cooled between the temperature range of liquidus and solidus, and then preheated particulate materials mixed in semisolid phase. Semi-solid phase heated above the liquidus temperature and mixed with the help of stirrer in Second step as shown in Fig. 1 [12].
Fig. 1. Stir Casting setup for AMMCs fabrication.
3. Mechanical and tribological properties 3.1. Mechanical properties The mechanical properties of AMMCs varied such as particulate morphology such as shape, size and the chemical properties. Some of the authors have investigated the effect of grain or particulate size on micro hardness of the reinforced composite fabricated through stir casting methods [10,13]. Some of the authors were reported better mechanical properties of 15 vol% of boron carbide reinforced metal matrix composites such as yield/ultimate tensile strength and hardness with compared to pure Al but ductility decreases by increasing the B4C reinforcing [14]. Table 1 indicates the yield strength, ultimate tensile strength increases by increasing B4C particulate in AL6061 and AL2124 aluminium alloy. In the case of AL6061, yield strength increased 101– 369 MPa and ultimate tensile strength increased by 206–416 MPa but in the same time ductility decreases by increasing B4C reinforcing in AMMCs. Same effect has shown for AL2124, yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) increases from 315 to 381 MPa and 421 to 511 MPa respectively by increasing of B4C reinforcement but ductility decreases by increasing the reinforcement B4C. Therefore, it confirmed that in the case of B4C reinforcement mechanical properties increases by increasing the particulate [15,16]. Some of the authors have added 5, 10 and 15 wt% of B4C in pure Al, Macro hardness and Micro hardness both of them increased by increasing the wt% of reinforcements. So the variation of BHN and VHN is from 34.48 to 58.6 and 51.3 to 80.8 respectively and ultimate tensile strength 185 to 215 MPa as shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b). Mechanical properties such as hardness and tensile strength improved by increasing the volume fraction of B4C particulate in aluminium alloy matrix (AL356) and formed widely applicable hybrid composites. Authors have also investigated that volume fraction of porosity level increases with increasing reinforcement and those porosity much affecting required properties but mechanical properties improved at the same time [18,19]. Mechanical properties could be improved satisfactory more if porosity reduced up to minimum level and that will be future scope for researchers always. Authors were studied Titanium chloride and boride (TiC and TiB2) reaction layers formed with addition of Potassium titanium fluoride (K2TiF6) flux and solved the wetting issue in B4C reinforcement at 858 °C. Ti could not formed effective bonding to the particulate materials B4C that’s why it has poor wetting properties in aluminium/aluminium alloy matrix phase [20]. Al-B4C with graphite reinforced composite shows hardness decreases with increasing the graphite reinforcement. Micrograph and others required materials properties of Al7075-T651 with 4 vol% B4C had studied, and found that average hardness was 3/2 times higher than that of the base matrix aluminum alloy [21,22]. Hybrid composite of Al6061 reinforced with 11 wt% B4C have produced by conventional stir casting method where melting of the metal done at 750 °C. Authors have got better mechanical properties such as hardness, yield and ultimate tensile strength of hybrid composite than unreinforced aluminium alloy but at the same time ductility
Table 1 Variation of mechanical properties by addition of reinforcements. S. No.
Alloy composition
YS/MPa
UTS/MPa
%El
Ref. no.
1 2 3 4
AL6061/B4C/10p AL 6061/B4C/20p AL2124/B4C/15p AL2124/B4C/25p
101 369 315 381
206 416 421 511
6.9 0.034 0.021 0.022
[15] [16] [16] [16]
Please cite this article as: A. Nirala, S. Soren, N. Kumar et al., A comprehensive review on mechanical properties of Al-B4C stir casting fabricated composite, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.09.172
A. Nirala et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
(a)
3
(b)
Fig. 2. (a) Variation of micro and macro hardness on B4C reinforcement; (b) Variation of tensile strength on B4C particulates [17].
Fig. 3. (a) Mean Micro hardness on amount of B4C particulates, (b) Variation of Yield/Ultimate Tensile Strength and % elongation with the amount of B4C particulates in Al6061 Matrix [24].
decreases as shown in Fig. 3(a) and (b). Strength of the composites was improved by 44.35% and 42.6% of yield and UTS respectively [24]. Authors were observed that the Compressive strength improved from 330 N/mm2 to 355 N/mm2 for 7 wt% and 9 wt% of B4C particles respectively. It has been studied for Al6061 alloy after addition
of B4C [23]. The comparative studies have been done for Al7075 and Al6061 alloy matrix hybrid composite. And found that Al7075 alloy matrix hybrid has high hardness and better ductility properties than Al6061 alloy matrix hybrid [19]. Fig. 4(a) shows the effective elastic modulus at room temperature, 100 °C and 200 °C temperatures for 4, 8, and 12 vol% B4C rein-
Fig. 4. (a) Elastic moduli at different temperature, (b) Coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) with respect of temperature [25].
Please cite this article as: A. Nirala, S. Soren, N. Kumar et al., A comprehensive review on mechanical properties of Al-B4C stir casting fabricated composite, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.09.172
4
A. Nirala et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
forced composites. And it decreases with increasing temperature and higher for 12 vol% reinforced composite and this is why, because boron carbide has higher moduli than aluminium at high temperature. But by increasing temperature and reinforcement, coefficient of thermal expansion increases and have maximum for lower reinforced in the temperature range of 50 °C to 500 °C which is showed in Fig. 4(b). 3.2. Tribological properties Study of tribological properties results the abrasion or wear resistance of the materials. Higher the wear/abrasion resistance imposed for less materials loss in working environment of the designed fabricated parts. Authors have studied the reciprocal sliding wear resistance of AMMCs where B4C is used as reinforcing materials. They have investigated that increasing the B4C reinforcement in aluminium matrix; increases wear resistance of the composite. B4C reinforced aluminum alloy matrix composites were investigated for reciprocal dry sliding wear behavior and concluded that volume fraction is the most important factor for coefficient of friction or wear rate along with velocity and load on composite [8,24]. Boron carbide reinforced AMMCs investigated tribological behavior under dry sliding motion which is fabricated through stir casting route. Load has the major role to influence the (coefficient of friction) COF and wear rate. Determination of the wear rate followed by sliding speeds and distance load has major factor (47.4%) where COF (44.1%) affected by distance followed by sliding speed and load [26]. Authors were also studied that abrasive wear properties and improved by addition of B4C particulate in Al2024 than unreinforced Al2024 alloy. Abrasion or wear resistance increased by increasing reinforced particulate and their size. The harder boron carbide particulates grant the key role for high wear resistance of the composite [27]. Experimental investigation on mechanical behavior of aluminium hybrid composites were studied, and observed that 10 wt% B4C with 5 wt% graphite reinforced composite have much better wear resistance compared to the base aluminium alloy matrix [28]. 4. Conclusion Aluminium/aluminium alloy- B4C with or without other particulates/reinforcements composite material studied briefly and it concluded that, AMMCs reinforced with B4C and others have found properties than unreinforced metals and their alloys. Mechanical as well as wear/abrasion resistance improved by adding of reinforcements in aluminium/aluminium alloy matrix materials. VHN and BHN, yield and ultimate tensile strength and abrasion/ wear resistance enhanced by reinforcement of B4C Extra squeezing action in stir casting process overcomes the porosity than conventional stir casting process. Thermal stability increases by increasing reinforcement.
[2] Aykut Canakci, Fazli Arslan, E. Ibrahim Yasar, Pre-treatment process of B4C particles to improve incorporation into molten AA2014 alloy, J. Mater. Sci. 42 (2007) 9536–9542. [3] Kirity Bhusan Khana, T.R.G. Kutty, M.K. Surappa, Hot hardness and indentation creep study on Al–5% Mg alloy matrix–B4C particle reinforced composites, Mater. Sci. Eng., A 427 (2006) 76–82. [4] V. Auradi, G.L. Rajesh, S.A. Kori, Processing of B4C particulate reinforced 6061 aluminium matrix composites by melt stirring involving two step addition, Proc. Mater. Sci. 6 (2014) 1068–1076. [5] Wu. Chuandong, Pan Fang, Guoqiang Luo, Fei Chen, Qiang Shen, Lianmeng Zhang, Enrique J. Lavernia, Effect of plasma activated sintering parameters on microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-7075/B4C composites, J. Alloy. Compd. 615 (2014) 276–282. [6] A. Canakci, F. Arslan, Abrasive wear behaviour of B4C particle reinforced Al2024 MMCs, Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol. 63 (2012) 785–795. [7] Jinkwan Jung, Shinoo Kang, Advances in manufacturing boron carbidealuminium composite, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 1 (87, 2004,) 47–54. [8] Harun Mindivan, Reciprocal sliding wear behaviour of B4C particulate reinforced aluminum alloy composites, Mater. Lett. 64 (2010) 405–407. [9] M.V. Gorshenkov, S.D. Kaloshkin, V.V. Tcherdyntsev, V.D. Danilov, V.N. Gulbin, Dry sliding friction of Al-based composites reinforced with various boroncontaining particles, J. Alloys Compounds 536S (2012) S126–S129. [10] Himanshu Kala, K.K.S. Mer, Sandeep Kumar, A Review on mechanical and Tribological behaviors of stir cast Aluminium matrix composite, Proc. Mater. Sci. 6 (2014) 1951–1960. [11] Kwangmin Choi, Se-eun Shin, Donghyun Bae, Hyunjoo Choi, Mechanical properties of aluminium-based nanocomposite reinforced with fullerenes, Light Metals (2014) 1437–1440. [12] Neeraj Kumar Sharma, R.K. Misraa, Satpal Sharmaa, Experimental characterization and numerical modeling of thermo-mechanical properties of Al-B4C composites, Ceram. Int. 43 (1 part A) (2016) 513–522. [13] C. Saravanan, K. Subramanian, D.B. Shivakumar, M. Sathyanadhan, R. Shankara Narayanan, Fabrication of Aluminium Metal Matrix Composite, ISSN: 09742115. [14] U.B. Gopal Krishna, K.V. Sreenivas Rao, B. Vasudeva, Effect of boron carbide reinforcement on aluminium matrix composites, IJMMSE 3 (1) (2013) 41–48. [15] M.F. Ibrahim, H.R. Ammar, A.M. Samuel, M.S. Soliman, A. Almajid, F.H. Samuel, Mechanical properties and fracture of Al- 15 vol% B4C based metal matrix composites, Int. J. Cast Metal Res. 27 (1) (2014). [16] B.H. Kear, J.M. Oblak, A.F. Giamei, Metall. Trans. A 1A (1970) 2477–2486. [17] N. Tsangarakis, B. Taleghani, Army Research Laboratory, 1992. [18] K. Kalaiselvan, N. Murugan, V. Siva Parameswaran, Production and characterization of AA6061–B4C stir cast composite, Mater. Des. 32 (2011) 4004–4009. [19] A. Mazahery, M.O. Shabani, E. Salahi, M.R. Rahimipour, A.A. Tofigh, M. Rajavi, Hardness and tensile strength study on Al356-B4C Composite, Mater. Sci. Technol. 22 (5) (2012). [20] Ali Mazahery, Mohsen Ostad Shabani, Mechanical properties of squeeze-cast A356 composites reinforced with B4C particulates, JMEPEG 21 (2012) 247– 252. [21] F. Toptan, A. Kilicarslan, I. Kerti, The effect of Ti addition on the properties of Al-B4C interface, Mater. Sci. Forum 636–637 (2010) 192–197. [22] C. Muthazhagan, A. Gnanavel Babu, G.B. Bhaskar, K. Rajkumar, Influence of graphite reinforcement on mechanical properties of aluminum-boron carbide composites, Adv. Mater. Res. 845 (2014) 398–402. [23] R. Ramesh, N. Murugan, Microstructure and metallurgical properties of aluminium 7075 – T651 Alloy / B4C 4% Vol. surface composite by friction stir processing, Adv. Mater. Manuf. Charact. 3 (1) (2013). [24] Pradeep V Badiger, Virupaxi Auradi, G.L. Rajesh, Vijaykumar Hiremath, Investigation on mechanical properties of B4C particulate reinforced Al6061 metal matrix composites, Int. J. Appl. Eng. Res. 10 (71) (2015), ISSN 0973-4562. [25] Neeraj Kumar Sharma, R.K. Misraa, Satpal Sharmaa, Finite element modeling of effective thermomechanical properties of Al–B4C metal matrix composites, J. Mater. Sci. (2016), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-0435-1. [26] F. Toptan, I. Kerti, L.A. Rocha, Reciprocal dry sliding wear behavior of B4C preinforced aluminium alloy matrix composites, Wear 290–291 (2012) 74–85. [27] N. Siddhartha Prabhakar, N. Radhika, R. Raghu, Analysis of tribological behavior of Aluminum/B4C Composite under dry sliding motion, Procedia Eng. 97 (2014) 994–1003. [28] A. Canakci, F. Arslan, T. Varol, Effect of volume fraction and size of B4C particles on production and microstructure properties of B4C reinforced aluminium alloy composites, Mater. Sci. Technol. 29 (8) (2013).
References [1] A. Baradeswaran, A. Elaya Perumal, Influence of B4C on the tribological and mechanical properties of Al 7075–B4C composites, Compos. B Eng. 54 (2013) 146–152.
Please cite this article as: A. Nirala, S. Soren, N. Kumar et al., A comprehensive review on mechanical properties of Al-B4C stir casting fabricated composite, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.09.172