Prediction of thermal and thermo‐mechanical behavior of nano‐zirconia reinforced aluminium matrix composites

Abstract

AbstractAluminium bequeaths the same benefits to medical industry as it does to other industries: it is incredibly lightweight and possesses superior strength‐to‐weight ratio. This study‘s aim is to investigate the thermal and thermomechanical behaviour of aluminium 6061 alloy reinforced with nano zirconia (0 wt. % to 15 wt. %; in 5 % steps) for medical applications. The effect of nano zirconia loading on thermal conductivity and thermo‐mechanical (thermo‐gravimetric analysis and dynamic mechanical analysis) have been systematically investigated. The thermal conductivity (128 W/m⋅K to 79 W/m⋅K) decreases with the increasing of nano zirconia particles reinforcement. The storage modulus increases with the nano zirconia particles (64 GPa to 172 GPa), whereas loss modulus indicates an increasing trend concerning the increasing temperature. The thermogravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis result shows that composites’ decomposition temperature improved with the weight percentage of nano zirconia particles. Furthermore, representative volume element analysis is conducted to evaluate the thermal conductivity and results indicates good agreement with the experimental results within a deviation of ∼5 %.