Mechanical and tribological properties of Al7075 based metal matrix composite reinforced with boron carbide and blast furnace slag

Abstract

This study uses the liquid metallurgy stir casting technique to create five different hybrid metal matrix composites using Al7075 as the base metal with 3.0 wt% of B4C and blast furnace slag (0.0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0 wt%) particles. Different mechanical behaviours such as tensile strength, micro hardness, impact strength and tribological behaviour of the fabricated composites have been investigated ASTM standards. Results shows that by adding B4C and blast furnace slag with Al 7075 alloy, decreases density, improves the mechanical and tribological properties significantly. The findings also indicates that with the increase in BFS content, the tensile strength increases up to a maximum value of 255 MPa, hardness of 112 Hv and impact strength of 2.25 J corresponding to 7.5 wt% and further increment the properties decline. Scanning electron microscope images reveal that the reinforced particles have been evenly dispersed throughout the aluminium metal matrix.