Mechanical properties of Al-SiC Nano Composites fabricated by Friction Stir Processing

Abstract

Aluminium metal matrix composites finds its application in aerospace, automobile, and energy industry owing to their excellent mechanical properties such as low density high strength, light weight, high strength-to-weight ratio and fatigue and corrosion resistances. Further the addition of nano size particles improves mechanical properties of the composites. The present work is focused on the mechanical performances of aluminium SiC nano composites. Instead of making bulk composites, the surface layers on the substrate improve the mechanical properties. For the fabrication of such surface composite layer, the new modification technique, friction stir processing (FSP) is used. FSP technique is used to produce defect-free surface composite with a good bonding and uniform distribution of reinforcement particles within an aluminium matrix. Various process parameters such as rotational speed, transverse feed, and volume fraction of nano SiC, on mechanical properties is investigated. The mechanical properties such as micro hardness and flexural strength were measured using micro hardness tester and universal tensile testing machine respectively.. In addition to that the morphology of the specimen is examined through scanning electron microscope to study them in detail.