Analysis of tensile strength on friction stir welded Al 6061 composite reinforced with B4C and Cr2O3 using RSM and ANN

Abstract

Aluminum (Al) alloys are reinforced with carbides and oxides to enhance their properties. Al composites are developed to meet current automotive, shipbuilding, and aviation requirements. In the current study, aluminum 6061 is reinforced with B4C and Cr2O3 separately to fabricate Al6061 + B4C and Al 6061 + Cr2O3 aluminum metal matrix composites (Al MMC). The Al composites were fabricated by stir casting with a wt % in steps of 2%, 4%, and 6%. Joining of Al MMC is essential to develop valuable components. The developed composites were welded using friction stir welding (FSW). FSW is recognized and widely used for joining Al MMC due to premium weld quality with minimum defects. The present study aims to analyze the effect of process parameters and predictive accuracy of the artificial neural network (ANN) and response surface methodology (RSM). The parameters selected for the study are tool rotational speed, tool travel speed, and reinforcement wt %. The FSW was performed based on the experimental design developed by the design expert software. Through RSM analysis, it was found that both the independent factors (tool rotational and tool transverse speed) and the interaction of factors jointly contribute to the FSW joint properties. The higher ultimate strength of 139 MPa and lower tensile strength of 48 MPa are found. As the tool travel speed increase from 20 to 25 mm min−1, ultimate tensile strength increase by about 59%. The average accuracy of RSM was 98.26 and of ANN was 94.86.