Effect of Ceramic Particulate Addition on Aluminium Based Ex-Situ and In-Situ Formed Metal Matrix Composites

An attempt was made to synthesis ex-situ formed Al/SiC MMC and in-situ formed Al/TiB2 MMC using stir casting method with different weight percentage of the ceramic particulates such as 4 wt%, 6 wt% and 8 wt% respectively. Significant improvements of mechanical properties were observed when the addition of reinforcement particulates increased from 2 to 8 wt%. The tensile strength and Rockwell hardness of the ex-situ and in-situ formed composites were conducted as per the ASTM standard E08-16 and ASTM standard E18-15 respectively. The in-situ formed TiB2MMC has superior mechanical properties such as 0.2% proof strength, tensile strength and hardness as compared to ex-situ SiC MMC as well as base metal. It is also concluded that the mechanical properties were increased with increase in wt% of reinforcement particles additions. The Optical Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy were used to examine the size and uniformity of reinforcement particles whereas the Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray diffractometer and Element Mapping analysis were used to confirm the presence of TiB2 particles. [GRAPHICS] .

Automated summary

The study examined the synthesis of Al/SiC MMC and Al/TiB2 MMC with different weight percentages of ceramic particles, finding that increasing the reinforcement particle content significantly improved mechanical properties, with in-situ formed TiB2 MMC exhibiting superior performance.