Synthesis and characterization of cold extruded Al/TiC metal matrix composite produced by stir casting technique

Abstract

Metal matrix composites are the advanced class of structural materials extensively used in the present-day engineering design and development activities such as in automobiles, spacecraft, aircraft, naval, sports, etc. because of their unique properties like high strength to weight ratio, long fatigue life, improved thermal resistance, corrosion resistance, etc. In the present research work, aluminium based metal matrix composites were developed by adding necessary amount of titanium carbide particulate in the range of 3 to 12 wt% in steps of 3% into the molten aluminium alloy by using stir casting technique. The cast composites were tested using scanning electron microscope and the images revealed that, titanium carbide particles are distributed uniformly throughout the aluminium alloy matrix. The produced cast composites were machined to the required size and shape as per the dimensions of the cylinder of cold extrusion machine and annealing heat treatment was carried out to improve deformability. These composites were then extruded at room temperature and mechanical properties such as hardness, yield strength, ductility, ultimate tensile strength, compression strength and impact strength were evaluated experimentally with different weight fractions for both as cast and extruded metal matrix composites. The results revealed that, the addition of reinforcement particles enhances mechanical properties of the composite and further improvement was noticed due to the extrusion process.