INVESTIGATIONS ON THE MACHINABILITY CHARACTERISTICS OF Al–Zn(5.4)–Mg(2.4)–Cu(1.4) ALLOY COMPOSITE USING TOPSIS APPROACH

Abstract

In this research, stir casting was used to create the aluminium alloy (AA7075) composite filled with 10[Formula: see text]wt.% zirconia (ZrO2) particles as reinforcement. Die sinking electric discharge machining (EDM) was used to examine the machining characteristics of the proposed composite. The machining experiments were executed in accordance with the [Formula: see text] orthogonal layout. Here, the material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (SR) were taken into account as the output responses, and the discharge current ([Formula: see text]), pulse on-time ([Formula: see text]), and pulse off-time ([Formula: see text]) were taken as the machining parameters. To determine the optimal parameter conditions for the output responses, the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) approach was applied. According to the experimental findings, the optimum settings of the parameters are determined at 15[Formula: see text]amps of ‘[Formula: see text]’, 750[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]s of ‘[Formula: see text]’ and 50[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]s of ‘[Formula: see text]’. ANOVA results stated that ‘[Formula: see text]’ has the most notable factor with a contribution of 90.85%. The interaction effect of parameters on the responses was shown by the contour plots. The confirmatory experiment was finally conducted at the optimum machining parameter settings, and it was found that the error only occurred in 8.4%.