Investigation of the microstructure and mechanical properties of an Al/SiC/ZrO2 hybrid composite by spark plasma sintering technique

Abstract

The quantum of work with silicon carbide (SiC) and zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) in the aluminum hybrid composite material has increased due to the growing demand for lightweight materials for various industrial applications. The aluminum hybrid composite with the wt% of primary reinforcement particles of SiC was kept constant at 5%, and the secondary reinforcement particles of ZrO2 were taken by 5%, 10%, and 15%. The sintering parameters were used as the temperature at 600°C, holding time of 35 minutes, and pressure at 30MPa. In this work, the aluminum composite material reinforced with 5%wt of SiC particles compared the test results with aluminum hybrid composite reinforcement of SiC and ZrO2 nanoparticles. Adding ZrO2 reinforcements enhances the aluminum hybrid composite material's better microstructure, microhardness, tensile strength, compression, and yield strength.