Microstructural studies on aluminium metal matrix composite (Al7075-SiC) fabricated through stir casting process

Abstract

In the present work Al7075 metal matrix reinforced with silicon carbide (SiC) powder is fabricated through stir casting route. Metal matrix composites were manufactured by altering percent weight fraction of silicon carbide powder as 5% & 7.5% by weight with average particle size of 50 µm. Microstructural evaluation and Vickers microhardness studies on stir casted Aluminium 7075 alloy which has silicon carbide (SiC) reinforcement are reported in current paper. After stir casting of composites, manufactured composite samples are examined by using optical microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM) in order to study distribution SiC particles in aluminium matrix. The microstructural observations on metal matrix composites have reported the presence of SiC reinforcement in the matrix which are very much fairly distributed into the matrix phase. Also it can be seen that there is little clustering of SiC particles in Al7075 matrix and porosity in manufactured composites. It is also been found that microhardness of aluminium metal matrix composites was improved with increment in reinforcement content.