Abstract
In the present work, an advanced technique was applied to coat an Al 2024 alloy with a surface composite layer reinforced with various nanoparticles. The surface of Al 2024 aluminum alloy was modified with Ta2C, Al2O3 and multi wall carbon nanotubes MWCNTs nanoparticles by friction stir process (FSP). An improvement in the surface of the fabricated nanocomposite due to the refinement of the microstructure grains was achieved. In addition, a significant improvement in the hardness and wear behavior was observed. The reinforcement particles were incorporated into double and triple hybrid composite particles to determine the most effective combination for the controlled properties. The results showed that for the composite reinforced with a double hybrid of Al2O3 and MWCNTs, the microstructure grains of the fabricated nanocomposite surface were refined by 40 times. The hardness was significantly improved, i.e., it was increased by 48% by incorporating the triple reinforcement (Ta2C, Al2O3, and MWCNTs) into the surface of Al 2024 aluminum alloy. The results of wear properties were in agreement with the results of hardness; the maximum wear resistance was obtained for Al 2024-Ta2C + Al2O3 + MWCNTs, and the wear rate was reduced by 11 times.
Highlights
The incorporation of one or more different reinforcing particles into metals greatly improves the fabricated metal matrix composite [1,2]
The fabrication of metal matrix hybrid composites has become more accessible in recent years due to the revolution in fabrication and processing techniques such as friction stir process (FSP), laser melting, etc. [7,8]
The process was carried out using the Friction Stir Processing (FSP) technique via an automatic milling machine (Bridgeport, Elmira, NY, USA) to produce the nanocomposite surface on the Al 2024 alloy sheets
Summary
The incorporation of one or more different reinforcing particles into metals greatly improves the fabricated metal matrix composite [1,2]. Due to its light weight and unique mechanical properties, aluminum alloy is the ideal choice for the fabrication of metal composites using various techniques [5,6]. The FSP process is considered one of the most effective methods for fabricating metal matrix composite surfaces because of its ability to introduce various reinforcing nanoparticles into the metal base without significant obstacles during the fabrication process [9,10]. The FSP method has been used to improve and modify the surface properties of processed aluminum alloys by using reinforced particles and ceramic materials such as Al2 O3 , B4 C, SiC, VC, CWNTs, TiB2 and others [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. The refinement of microstructure significantly affects the mechanical properties due to equiaxed grains produced by FSP process or by the addition of chemical modifiers [20,21,22]
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