A Study on Mechanical Behavior of Aluminium Based MMC Reinforced with Alumina

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science (IJRIAS) | Volume III, Issue II, February 2018 | ISSN 2454-6194

A Study on Mechanical Behavior of Aluminium Based MMC Reinforced with Alumina

Krishna Murthy M¹, Channabasavaraj. B. Dharani², Manjunath.K.S³

   ^{1, 2, 3} Assistant Professor, Mechanical Department, Bangalore Technological Institute, Bangalore, India.

Abstract — In automobile and aerospace industries Aluminium alloys are widely used because they are having low density and good mechanical properties, wear and better corrosion resistance, low thermal coefficient of expansion as compared to conventional metals and alloys. The mechanical properties of these materials and relatively low production cost make them a very attractive for several applications both from technological and scientific viewpoints. The point involved in designing metal matrix composite materials is to combine the desirable attributes of metals and Ceramics. Present work is focused on the study of mechanical behaviour of Aluminium Cast Alloy (A356) with Al₂O₃ composite produced by the stir casting technique. Different percentage of reinforcement is used. Tensile test, Impact test and wear test performed on the samples obtained by the stir casting process. Optical microscope analysis was performed to know the presence of the phases of reinforced material.

Key words: Stir casting, Alloy A356, Al₂O₃, MMc’s, Composites, Mechanical Property.

I. INTRODUCTION

There have been tremendous strides in engineering materials since 1950s. Several super alloys and heat resistance materials have been developed for various industrial applications, especially aerospace/aircraft and defense. Automotive, medical and sport equipment industries pushed advances in materials further to introduce new generation materials particularly having low density and very light weight with high strength, hardness and stiffness. One of the important of these advanced materials is composites.

Composite materials are important engineering materials due to their outstanding mechanical properties. Metal matrix composite (MMC) materials are one of the widely known composites because of their superior properties such as high strength, hardness, stiffness, wear and corrosion resistances. Silicon carbide and Alumina particle reinforced aluminium-based MMCs are among the most common MMC and commercially available ones due to their economical production. Aluminium alloys are extensively used as industrial materials because of their excellent characteristics such as low density, high specific strength and thermal conductivity.

Read More