Studies on mechanical and thermal behaviors of Al6061- SiC-Gr-ZrO2 nanohybrid composites

Abstract

The aim of this research work is to fabricate hybrid nano composite material containing metal matrix Al6061, reinforcements of Silicon Carbide (SiC), Zirconia or Zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) and Graphite (Gr) by a novel technique. These reinforcements are added by an increment of 0.75% for each sample. A high energy ball milling machine is used to create nano particles for fabrication of new material. These materials are united by advanced stir casting process. Then nano composite specimens are prepared to suit for hardness, tensile and thermal conductivity tests. Hardness of the composites has significantly improved by the presence of reinforcement content. Then the Tensile strengths are increases as well as decreases with enlarged amount of reinforcements. Also the effect of thermal conductivity shows addition of reinforcements decreases the value of thermal conductivity. Then finer bonding was achieved in between reinforced particles and matrix as observing in SEM. This will shows that the newly fabricated materials are suited for aerospace and automotive applications.