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Preparation and evaluation of mechanical properties of 6061Al-Al2O3 metal matrix composites by stir casting process
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr
Preparation and evaluation of mechanical properties of 6061Al-Al2O3 metal matrix composites by stir casting process S. Sivananthan a,⇑, V. Rajalaxman Reddy b, C. Samson Jerold Samuel c a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, K.Ramakrishnan College of Engineering, Trichy- 621112, India Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai 600077, India c Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore 641008, India b
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 18 June 2019 Accepted 30 June 2019 Available online xxxx Keywords: Al6061 alloy Aluminium oxide Hardness Ultimate tensile strength Compression strength
a b s t r a c t Aluminium oxide particle (0–4 wt%) reinforced Al6061 alloy metal matrix composites have been prepared using stir casting process. Mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength and compression of composites have been tested and the values are compared with Al6061 alloy. The results reveal that mechanical properties of MMC is greatly enhanced by the addition of Al2O3 particles in Al6061 alloy. Hardness, ultimate tensile strength and compression strength of Al6061 alloy increased with increasing weight fraction of aluminium oxide particles in aluminium matrix. This developed MMC can be used in automotive applications because of its excellent mechanical properties while compared to Al6061 alloy. Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Recent Trends in Nanomaterials for Energy, Environmental and Engineering Applications.
1. Introduction Aluminium alloy has been found in various applications such as automotive, marine, defence and transport engineering due to its higher hardness, ultimate tensile strength and compression strength [1–4]. However, the reinforcements in the form of particles and fibers greatly improved the mechanical properties of MMCs while compared to aluminium alloy [5–10]. Stir casting process is an efficient and economical method to produce the aluminium based metal matrix composites [11–13]. In this process, the aluminium alloy is melted using a furnace and the reinforcements are added when the melt is stirred at high speed. Subsequently, the aluminium melt is poured into a fixed die to produce the components of desirable shape and size. In this present work, Al6061 alloy is used as matrix because of its wide range of applications such as fittings in marine and aircrafts, lens mount in camera, couplings, brake pistons and hydraulic pistons. Aluminium oxide is selected as reinforcement because of its excellent hardness. Many researchers attempted the reinforcement of Al2O3 particles in Al alloy. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Mechanical Engineering, K.Ramakrishnan College of Engineering, Trichy- 621112, India E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S. Sivananthan), [email protected] (V. Rajalaxman Reddy).
Baradeswaran and Perumal [14] investigated the mechanical and wear properties of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and graphite particles reinforced Al 7075 alloy hybrid composites fabricated by stir casting process. The results revealed that reinforcement of Al2O3 and graphite particles increased the mechanical properties and wear resistance of composites. Hardness, tensile strength, flexural strength and compression strength of composites increased with increasing wt% of Al2O3 reinforcement in aluminium alloy. Hence in this present work, an investigation has been made to study the effect of Al2O3 particles reinforcement in Al6061 alloy based MMCs fabricated by stir casting route. Weight fraction of particles varied from 0 to 4 and the mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength and compression strength of composites have been investigated and compared with matrix.
2. Experimental work Al6061 alloy is used as matrix and its chemical composition as listed in Table 1. Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) with particle size of 24– 32 lm is used as reinforcement and Al6061 alloy metal matrix composites prepared by stir casting process. 1 kg of Al6061 is melted in stir casting furnace and measured wt% of Al2O3 particles are preheated to 400 °C. Cylindrical die is made up of cast iron and it’s preheated to 200 °C. The preheated reinforcement particles are
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.744 2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Recent Trends in Nanomaterials for Energy, Environmental and Engineering Applications.
Please cite this article as: S. Sivananthan, V. Rajalaxman Reddy and C. Samson Jerold Samuel, Preparation and evaluation of mechanical properties of 6061Al-Al2O3 metal matrix composites by stir casting process, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.744
2
S. Sivananthan et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Table 1 Chemical composition of Al6061 alloy (wt%). Sample
Si
Cr
Cu
Fe
Mg
Mn
Ti
Zn
Al
Al6061
0.6
0.23
0.18
0.36
0.93
0.12
0.14
0.22
Bal
Fig. 3. Samples for testing the ultimate tensile strength of Al6061alloy – aluminium oxide based metal matrix composites.
Fig. 1. Al6061alloy – aluminium oxide based metal matrix composites.
slowly added to the melt when the aluminium melt is stirred at a speed of 600 rpm. The composite melt is poured at a temperature of 780 °C into the cast iron die which produced the castings of 30 mm diameter with 300 mm height. Al6061–Al2O3 metal matrix composites castings prepared using stir casting process is shown in Fig. 1. The mechanical properties viz., hardness and tensile strength of Al6061 alloy and aluminium oxide reinforced Al6061 composites have been investigated. Samples of 15 mm 15 mm 15 mm are prepared as shown in Fig. 2 to investigate the hardness of samples. Hardness of samples is checked using micro hardness tester (Wilson Wolpert, Germany). Three trails are conducted and the average micro hardness value is presented. Samples of 6 mm diameter with 30 mm gauge length as shown in Fig. 3 are prepared to investigate the ultimate tensile strength of Al6061 alloy and aluminium oxide reinforced Al6061 composites. Tensile strength of samples is investigated using extensometer – computerized universal testing machine. Two trials are performed and average ultimate tensile strength of samples is reported. Compressive strength of Al6061 alloy and aluminium oxide reinforced Al6061 composites is tested using compression testing
machine. Samples of 12 mm diameter with 30 mm length are prepared using CNC lathe. Three trails are performed for each sample and the average compressive strength is tabulated. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Micro hardness of Al6061 alloy based composites Hardness of Al6061 alloy and aluminium oxide reinforced Al6061 composites is reported in Table 2. It can be seen that hardness of aluminium 6061 alloy is greatly improved by the addition of Al2O3 particles. Variation of hardness with respect to the weight percentage of Al2O3 particles in Al6061 alloy is shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen that micro hardness of Al6061 alloy increased with increment in wt% of aluminium oxide particles in Al6061 alloy. Similar results have been observed in other studies [15–18] that hardness of samples increased with increasing wt% of reinforcements in Al alloy. 3.2. Ultimate tensile strength of Al6061 alloy based composites Ultimate tensile strength of Al6061 alloy and aluminium oxide reinforced Al6061 composites is reported in Table 3. It is observed that ultimate tensile strength of aluminium 6061 alloy is significantly improved by the reinforcement of aluminium dioxide particles. Also the percentage of elongation reduced by the reinforcement of aluminium oxide particles in Al6061 alloy. Ultimate tensile strength of MMC with respect to the variation of weight fraction of aluminium dioxide particles in Al6061 alloy is shown in Fig. 5. It is observed that ultimate tensile strength of Al6061 alloy castings increased with increasing weight fraction of Al2O3 in Al6061 alloy. Many researchers [16,19–21] have reported the same mechanism that ultimate tensile strength of aluminium alloy is greatly improved by reinforcing the particles and fibers in matrix. 3.3. Compression strength of Al6061 alloy based composites
Fig. 2. Samples for testing the hardness of Al6061alloy – aluminium oxide based metal matrix composites.
Compression strength of Al6061 alloy and aluminium oxide reinforced Al6061 composites is reported in Table 4. It is observed that compression strength of aluminium 6061 alloy is increased
Please cite this article as: S. Sivananthan, V. Rajalaxman Reddy and C. Samson Jerold Samuel, Preparation and evaluation of mechanical properties of 6061Al-Al2O3 metal matrix composites by stir casting process, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.744
3
S. Sivananthan et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx Table 2 Micro hardness of Al6061 alloy based MMCs. Sample Code
H1 (HV)
H2 (HV)
H3 (HV)
Average Micro Hardness (HV)
Al6061 Al6061 – 2 wt% Al2O3 Al6061 – 4 wt% Al2O3
68 74 82
70 76 81
68 76 82
68 75 81
with increasing wt% of aluminium oxide particles in Al6061 alloy. Compression strength increased up to 9% by reinforcing 4 wt% of Al2O3 particles in Al6061 alloy. 4. Conclusions Aluminium oxide particle (0–4 wt%) reinforced Al6061 alloy metal matrix composites have been prepared using stir casting process. Mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength and compression of composites have been tested and the values are compared with Al6061 alloy. The following conclusions made from the present work and presented:
Fig. 4. Hardness of Al6061alloy – aluminium oxide based metal matrix composites against wt% of reinforcement.
Table 3 Ultimate tensile strength of Al6061 alloy based MMCs. Sample Code
Ultimate Tensile Strength (MPa)
% of elongation
Al6061 Al6061 – 2 wt% Al2O3 Al6061 – 4 wt% Al2O3
125 143 164
5.8 4.27 3.03
Hardness of Al6061 alloy increased with increasing weight fraction of aluminium oxide particles in aluminium matrix. Peak hardness of 81HV is observed for the composites had 4 wt% of Al2O3 particles. Ultimate tensile strength is improved by the addition of Al2O3 particles in Al6061 alloy. Maximum ultimate tensile strength of 164 MPa is observed for Al6061 – 4 wt% Al2O3 particulate composites. Compression strength of samples increased with increment in wt% of Al2O3 particles in Al6061 alloy. Compression strength of samples increased up to 9% by reinforcing 4 wt% of Al2O3 particles in Al6061 alloy. This developed MMC can be used in aircraft fittings, couplings, brake pistons, hydraulic pistons and valve parts because of its higher hardness, tensile strength and compression strength.
References
Fig. 5. Ultimate tensile strength of Al6061alloy – aluminium oxide based metal matrix composites against wt% of reinforcement.
Table 4 Compression strength of Al6061 alloy based MMCs. Sample Code
Compression Strength (N/m2)
Al6061 Al6061 – 2 wt% Al2O3 Al6061 – 4 wt% Al2O3
22,610 24,030 24,660
[1] D.B. Miracle, Metal matrix composites–from science to technological significance, Compos. Sci. Technol. 65 (15–16) (2005) 2526–2540. [2] M.K. Surappa, Aluminium matrix composites: challenges and opportunities, Sadhana 28 (1–2) (2003) 319–334. [3] Zaki Ahmad, Mechanical behavior and fabrication characteristics of aluminum metal matrix composite alloys, J. Reinf. Plast. Compos. 20 (11) (2001) 921–944. [4] W.S. Miller, L. Zhuang, J. Bottema, A.J. Wittebrood, P. De Smet, A. Haszler, Ai Vieregge, Recent development in aluminium alloys for the automotive industry, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 280 (1) (2000) 37–49. [5] A. Baradeswaran, S.C. Vettivel, A. Elaya Perumal, N. Selvakumar, R. Franklin Issac, Experimental investigation on mechanical behaviour, modelling and optimization of wear parameters of B4C and graphite reinforced aluminium hybrid composites, Mater. Des. 63 (2014) 620–632. [6] Selvam, J. David Raja, D.S. Robinson Smart, I. Dinaharan, Microstructure and some mechanical properties of fly ash particulate reinforced AA6061 aluminum alloy composites prepared by compocasting, Mater. Des. 49 (2013) 28–34. [7] G.B. Veeresh Kumar, R. Pramod, Influence of WC particulate reinforcement on the mechanical properties and sliding wear of Al6061 alloys, in: Applied Mechanics and Materials, Trans Tech Publications, 2015, pp. 67–73. [8] Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Arunprasad Narippalayam Thangaraj, Harishankar Sekar, Dry sliding wear characterization of squeeze cast LM13/FeCu composite using response surface methodology, China Foundry 14 (6) (2017) 525–533. [9] Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Effect of stir cast process parameters on wear behaviour of copper coated short steel fibers reinforced LM13 aluminium alloy composites, Mater. Res. Express 5 (6) (2018) 066550. [10] Kamal Shankar Selvaraj, Prabu Govindan, Investigation of the mechanical properties of a squeeze-cast LM6 aluminium alloy reinforced with a zinccoated steel-wire mesh, Materiali in tehnologije 52 (2) (2018) 125–131. [11] Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Rohith Selvarajan, Ramakrishnan Kanagaraj, Palanisamy Angappan, Investigation on
Please cite this article as: S. Sivananthan, V. Rajalaxman Reddy and C. Samson Jerold Samuel, Preparation and evaluation of mechanical properties of 6061Al-Al2O3 metal matrix composites by stir casting process, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.744
4
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
S. Sivananthan et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx microstructure and tensile behaviour of stir cast LM13 aluminium alloy reinforced with copper coated short steel fibers using response surface methodology, Trans. Indian Inst. Metals 71 (9) (2018) 2221–2230. Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Rohith Selvarajan, Thirumal Prasanna Ravichandran, Saravana Kumar Ravi, Siva Rama Chandran Petchimuthu, Optimisation of dry sliding wear parameters of squeeze cast AA336 aluminium alloy: copper-coated steel wire-reinforced composites by response surface methodology, Int. J. Metalcast. (2018) 1–13. Adel Mahamood Hassan, Abdalla Alrashdan, Mohammed T. Hayajneh, Ahmad Turki Mayyas, Wear behavior of Al–Mg–Cu–based composites containing SiC particles, Tribol. Int. 42 (8) (2009) 1230–1238. A. Baradeswaran, A. Elaya Perumal, Study on mechanical and wear properties of Al 7075/Al2O3/graphite hybrid composites, Composites Part B: Eng. 56 (2014) 464–471. Metin Kok, Production and mechanical properties of Al2O3 particle-reinforced 2024 aluminium alloy composites, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 161 (3) (2005) 381–387. G.B. Veeresh Kumar, C.S.P. Rao, N. Selvaraj, Mechanical and dry sliding wear behavior of Al7075 alloy-reinforced with SiC particles, J. Compos. Mater. 46 (10) (2012) 1201–1209. Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Nisaanthakumar Nithyanandam, Karthikeyan Rajendran, Kesavaprasad Kothandapani
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
Radhakrishnan, Investigation of mechanical properties and dry sliding wear behaviour of squeeze cast LM6 aluminium alloy reinforced with copper coated short steel fibers, Trans. Indian Inst. Metals 71 (4) (2018) 813–822. Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Rohith Selvarajan, Sujeevan Athanarsamy, Satheshkumar Arumugam, Gajendhiran Veerakumar, Investigation on mechanical properties and wear behaviour of squeeze cast LM13 aluminium alloy reinforced with copper coated steel wires, Z. Phys. Chem. 232 (12) (2018) 1787–1806. Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Kirubaharan Krishnamoorthy, Kamal Shankar Selvaraj, Prabu Govindan, Effect of copper coating and reinforcement orientation on mechanical properties of LM6 aluminium alloy composites reinforced with steel mesh by squeeze casting, Trans. Indian Inst. Metals 71 (5) (2018) 1041–1048. Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Investigation on mechanical and wear properties of zinc-coated steel wires reinforced LM6 aluminium alloy composites by squeeze casting, Surface Rev. Lett. 26 (01) (2019) 1850125. D. Mandal, B.K. Dutta, S.C. Panigrahi, Microstructure and mechanical properties of Al–2Mg alloy base short steel fiber reinforced composites prepared by vortex method, J. Mater. Sci. 41 (15) (2006) 4764–4770.
Please cite this article as: S. Sivananthan, V. Rajalaxman Reddy and C. Samson Jerold Samuel, Preparation and evaluation of mechanical properties of 6061Al-Al2O3 metal matrix composites by stir casting process, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.744
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr
Preparation and evaluation of mechanical properties of 6061Al-Al2O3 metal matrix composites by stir casting process S. Sivananthan a,⇑, V. Rajalaxman Reddy b, C. Samson Jerold Samuel c a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, K.Ramakrishnan College of Engineering, Trichy- 621112, India Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai 600077, India c Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore 641008, India b
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 18 June 2019 Accepted 30 June 2019 Available online xxxx Keywords: Al6061 alloy Aluminium oxide Hardness Ultimate tensile strength Compression strength
a b s t r a c t Aluminium oxide particle (0–4 wt%) reinforced Al6061 alloy metal matrix composites have been prepared using stir casting process. Mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength and compression of composites have been tested and the values are compared with Al6061 alloy. The results reveal that mechanical properties of MMC is greatly enhanced by the addition of Al2O3 particles in Al6061 alloy. Hardness, ultimate tensile strength and compression strength of Al6061 alloy increased with increasing weight fraction of aluminium oxide particles in aluminium matrix. This developed MMC can be used in automotive applications because of its excellent mechanical properties while compared to Al6061 alloy. Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Recent Trends in Nanomaterials for Energy, Environmental and Engineering Applications.
1. Introduction Aluminium alloy has been found in various applications such as automotive, marine, defence and transport engineering due to its higher hardness, ultimate tensile strength and compression strength [1–4]. However, the reinforcements in the form of particles and fibers greatly improved the mechanical properties of MMCs while compared to aluminium alloy [5–10]. Stir casting process is an efficient and economical method to produce the aluminium based metal matrix composites [11–13]. In this process, the aluminium alloy is melted using a furnace and the reinforcements are added when the melt is stirred at high speed. Subsequently, the aluminium melt is poured into a fixed die to produce the components of desirable shape and size. In this present work, Al6061 alloy is used as matrix because of its wide range of applications such as fittings in marine and aircrafts, lens mount in camera, couplings, brake pistons and hydraulic pistons. Aluminium oxide is selected as reinforcement because of its excellent hardness. Many researchers attempted the reinforcement of Al2O3 particles in Al alloy. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Mechanical Engineering, K.Ramakrishnan College of Engineering, Trichy- 621112, India E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S. Sivananthan), [email protected] (V. Rajalaxman Reddy).
Baradeswaran and Perumal [14] investigated the mechanical and wear properties of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and graphite particles reinforced Al 7075 alloy hybrid composites fabricated by stir casting process. The results revealed that reinforcement of Al2O3 and graphite particles increased the mechanical properties and wear resistance of composites. Hardness, tensile strength, flexural strength and compression strength of composites increased with increasing wt% of Al2O3 reinforcement in aluminium alloy. Hence in this present work, an investigation has been made to study the effect of Al2O3 particles reinforcement in Al6061 alloy based MMCs fabricated by stir casting route. Weight fraction of particles varied from 0 to 4 and the mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength and compression strength of composites have been investigated and compared with matrix.
2. Experimental work Al6061 alloy is used as matrix and its chemical composition as listed in Table 1. Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) with particle size of 24– 32 lm is used as reinforcement and Al6061 alloy metal matrix composites prepared by stir casting process. 1 kg of Al6061 is melted in stir casting furnace and measured wt% of Al2O3 particles are preheated to 400 °C. Cylindrical die is made up of cast iron and it’s preheated to 200 °C. The preheated reinforcement particles are
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.744 2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Recent Trends in Nanomaterials for Energy, Environmental and Engineering Applications.
Please cite this article as: S. Sivananthan, V. Rajalaxman Reddy and C. Samson Jerold Samuel, Preparation and evaluation of mechanical properties of 6061Al-Al2O3 metal matrix composites by stir casting process, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.744
2
S. Sivananthan et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Table 1 Chemical composition of Al6061 alloy (wt%). Sample
Si
Cr
Cu
Fe
Mg
Mn
Ti
Zn
Al
Al6061
0.6
0.23
0.18
0.36
0.93
0.12
0.14
0.22
Bal
Fig. 3. Samples for testing the ultimate tensile strength of Al6061alloy – aluminium oxide based metal matrix composites.
Fig. 1. Al6061alloy – aluminium oxide based metal matrix composites.
slowly added to the melt when the aluminium melt is stirred at a speed of 600 rpm. The composite melt is poured at a temperature of 780 °C into the cast iron die which produced the castings of 30 mm diameter with 300 mm height. Al6061–Al2O3 metal matrix composites castings prepared using stir casting process is shown in Fig. 1. The mechanical properties viz., hardness and tensile strength of Al6061 alloy and aluminium oxide reinforced Al6061 composites have been investigated. Samples of 15 mm 15 mm 15 mm are prepared as shown in Fig. 2 to investigate the hardness of samples. Hardness of samples is checked using micro hardness tester (Wilson Wolpert, Germany). Three trails are conducted and the average micro hardness value is presented. Samples of 6 mm diameter with 30 mm gauge length as shown in Fig. 3 are prepared to investigate the ultimate tensile strength of Al6061 alloy and aluminium oxide reinforced Al6061 composites. Tensile strength of samples is investigated using extensometer – computerized universal testing machine. Two trials are performed and average ultimate tensile strength of samples is reported. Compressive strength of Al6061 alloy and aluminium oxide reinforced Al6061 composites is tested using compression testing
machine. Samples of 12 mm diameter with 30 mm length are prepared using CNC lathe. Three trails are performed for each sample and the average compressive strength is tabulated. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Micro hardness of Al6061 alloy based composites Hardness of Al6061 alloy and aluminium oxide reinforced Al6061 composites is reported in Table 2. It can be seen that hardness of aluminium 6061 alloy is greatly improved by the addition of Al2O3 particles. Variation of hardness with respect to the weight percentage of Al2O3 particles in Al6061 alloy is shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen that micro hardness of Al6061 alloy increased with increment in wt% of aluminium oxide particles in Al6061 alloy. Similar results have been observed in other studies [15–18] that hardness of samples increased with increasing wt% of reinforcements in Al alloy. 3.2. Ultimate tensile strength of Al6061 alloy based composites Ultimate tensile strength of Al6061 alloy and aluminium oxide reinforced Al6061 composites is reported in Table 3. It is observed that ultimate tensile strength of aluminium 6061 alloy is significantly improved by the reinforcement of aluminium dioxide particles. Also the percentage of elongation reduced by the reinforcement of aluminium oxide particles in Al6061 alloy. Ultimate tensile strength of MMC with respect to the variation of weight fraction of aluminium dioxide particles in Al6061 alloy is shown in Fig. 5. It is observed that ultimate tensile strength of Al6061 alloy castings increased with increasing weight fraction of Al2O3 in Al6061 alloy. Many researchers [16,19–21] have reported the same mechanism that ultimate tensile strength of aluminium alloy is greatly improved by reinforcing the particles and fibers in matrix. 3.3. Compression strength of Al6061 alloy based composites
Fig. 2. Samples for testing the hardness of Al6061alloy – aluminium oxide based metal matrix composites.
Compression strength of Al6061 alloy and aluminium oxide reinforced Al6061 composites is reported in Table 4. It is observed that compression strength of aluminium 6061 alloy is increased
Please cite this article as: S. Sivananthan, V. Rajalaxman Reddy and C. Samson Jerold Samuel, Preparation and evaluation of mechanical properties of 6061Al-Al2O3 metal matrix composites by stir casting process, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.744
3
S. Sivananthan et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx Table 2 Micro hardness of Al6061 alloy based MMCs. Sample Code
H1 (HV)
H2 (HV)
H3 (HV)
Average Micro Hardness (HV)
Al6061 Al6061 – 2 wt% Al2O3 Al6061 – 4 wt% Al2O3
68 74 82
70 76 81
68 76 82
68 75 81
with increasing wt% of aluminium oxide particles in Al6061 alloy. Compression strength increased up to 9% by reinforcing 4 wt% of Al2O3 particles in Al6061 alloy. 4. Conclusions Aluminium oxide particle (0–4 wt%) reinforced Al6061 alloy metal matrix composites have been prepared using stir casting process. Mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength and compression of composites have been tested and the values are compared with Al6061 alloy. The following conclusions made from the present work and presented:
Fig. 4. Hardness of Al6061alloy – aluminium oxide based metal matrix composites against wt% of reinforcement.
Table 3 Ultimate tensile strength of Al6061 alloy based MMCs. Sample Code
Ultimate Tensile Strength (MPa)
% of elongation
Al6061 Al6061 – 2 wt% Al2O3 Al6061 – 4 wt% Al2O3
125 143 164
5.8 4.27 3.03
Hardness of Al6061 alloy increased with increasing weight fraction of aluminium oxide particles in aluminium matrix. Peak hardness of 81HV is observed for the composites had 4 wt% of Al2O3 particles. Ultimate tensile strength is improved by the addition of Al2O3 particles in Al6061 alloy. Maximum ultimate tensile strength of 164 MPa is observed for Al6061 – 4 wt% Al2O3 particulate composites. Compression strength of samples increased with increment in wt% of Al2O3 particles in Al6061 alloy. Compression strength of samples increased up to 9% by reinforcing 4 wt% of Al2O3 particles in Al6061 alloy. This developed MMC can be used in aircraft fittings, couplings, brake pistons, hydraulic pistons and valve parts because of its higher hardness, tensile strength and compression strength.
References
Fig. 5. Ultimate tensile strength of Al6061alloy – aluminium oxide based metal matrix composites against wt% of reinforcement.
Table 4 Compression strength of Al6061 alloy based MMCs. Sample Code
Compression Strength (N/m2)
Al6061 Al6061 – 2 wt% Al2O3 Al6061 – 4 wt% Al2O3
22,610 24,030 24,660
[1] D.B. Miracle, Metal matrix composites–from science to technological significance, Compos. Sci. Technol. 65 (15–16) (2005) 2526–2540. [2] M.K. Surappa, Aluminium matrix composites: challenges and opportunities, Sadhana 28 (1–2) (2003) 319–334. [3] Zaki Ahmad, Mechanical behavior and fabrication characteristics of aluminum metal matrix composite alloys, J. Reinf. Plast. Compos. 20 (11) (2001) 921–944. [4] W.S. Miller, L. Zhuang, J. Bottema, A.J. Wittebrood, P. De Smet, A. Haszler, Ai Vieregge, Recent development in aluminium alloys for the automotive industry, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 280 (1) (2000) 37–49. [5] A. Baradeswaran, S.C. Vettivel, A. Elaya Perumal, N. Selvakumar, R. Franklin Issac, Experimental investigation on mechanical behaviour, modelling and optimization of wear parameters of B4C and graphite reinforced aluminium hybrid composites, Mater. Des. 63 (2014) 620–632. [6] Selvam, J. David Raja, D.S. Robinson Smart, I. Dinaharan, Microstructure and some mechanical properties of fly ash particulate reinforced AA6061 aluminum alloy composites prepared by compocasting, Mater. Des. 49 (2013) 28–34. [7] G.B. Veeresh Kumar, R. Pramod, Influence of WC particulate reinforcement on the mechanical properties and sliding wear of Al6061 alloys, in: Applied Mechanics and Materials, Trans Tech Publications, 2015, pp. 67–73. [8] Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Arunprasad Narippalayam Thangaraj, Harishankar Sekar, Dry sliding wear characterization of squeeze cast LM13/FeCu composite using response surface methodology, China Foundry 14 (6) (2017) 525–533. [9] Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Effect of stir cast process parameters on wear behaviour of copper coated short steel fibers reinforced LM13 aluminium alloy composites, Mater. Res. Express 5 (6) (2018) 066550. [10] Kamal Shankar Selvaraj, Prabu Govindan, Investigation of the mechanical properties of a squeeze-cast LM6 aluminium alloy reinforced with a zinccoated steel-wire mesh, Materiali in tehnologije 52 (2) (2018) 125–131. [11] Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Rohith Selvarajan, Ramakrishnan Kanagaraj, Palanisamy Angappan, Investigation on
Please cite this article as: S. Sivananthan, V. Rajalaxman Reddy and C. Samson Jerold Samuel, Preparation and evaluation of mechanical properties of 6061Al-Al2O3 metal matrix composites by stir casting process, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.744
4
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
S. Sivananthan et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx microstructure and tensile behaviour of stir cast LM13 aluminium alloy reinforced with copper coated short steel fibers using response surface methodology, Trans. Indian Inst. Metals 71 (9) (2018) 2221–2230. Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Rohith Selvarajan, Thirumal Prasanna Ravichandran, Saravana Kumar Ravi, Siva Rama Chandran Petchimuthu, Optimisation of dry sliding wear parameters of squeeze cast AA336 aluminium alloy: copper-coated steel wire-reinforced composites by response surface methodology, Int. J. Metalcast. (2018) 1–13. Adel Mahamood Hassan, Abdalla Alrashdan, Mohammed T. Hayajneh, Ahmad Turki Mayyas, Wear behavior of Al–Mg–Cu–based composites containing SiC particles, Tribol. Int. 42 (8) (2009) 1230–1238. A. Baradeswaran, A. Elaya Perumal, Study on mechanical and wear properties of Al 7075/Al2O3/graphite hybrid composites, Composites Part B: Eng. 56 (2014) 464–471. Metin Kok, Production and mechanical properties of Al2O3 particle-reinforced 2024 aluminium alloy composites, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 161 (3) (2005) 381–387. G.B. Veeresh Kumar, C.S.P. Rao, N. Selvaraj, Mechanical and dry sliding wear behavior of Al7075 alloy-reinforced with SiC particles, J. Compos. Mater. 46 (10) (2012) 1201–1209. Samson Jerold Samuel Chelladurai, Ramesh Arthanari, Nisaanthakumar Nithyanandam, Karthikeyan Rajendran, Kesavaprasad Kothandapani
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
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Please cite this article as: S. Sivananthan, V. Rajalaxman Reddy and C. Samson Jerold Samuel, Preparation and evaluation of mechanical properties of 6061Al-Al2O3 metal matrix composites by stir casting process, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.744