INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION
Many of the engineering applications in today’s world require materials with unusual
combination of properties that cannot be met by the conventional metal alloys, ceramics or
polymers. This is especially true for the materials that are needed in aerospace and transportation
industries.

Human have been using hybrid materials for thousands of years. The greatest advantage
of hybrid materials is strength and stiffness combined with lightness. In modern aviation, both
military and civil would be much less efficient without hybrid materials. In fact, the demands
made by that industry for materials that are both light and strong has been the main force driving
the development of hybrid materials. The air frames of some smaller aircraft are made entirely
from composites, as are the wing, tail and body panels of large commercial air craft.Hybrid
materials can be moulded into complex shapes. Another advantage of hybrid materials is that they
provide design flexibility. There are varities of composites that can be manufactured according to
the requirements of desired properties for a particular application.

The hybrid composites as a class of engineering materials provide almost potential for higher
strength, stiffness, and corrosion resistance over pure materials system of metals. Hybrid
materials are formed by combining two or more materials that have quite different properties. the
different materials work together to give the composite unique properties, But within the
composite the materials can be differentiated since they do not dissolve or blend into each other.
Composites are made up of two materials namely matrix and reinforcement. In metal matrix
composites (MMCs), metals form of a fibers, particles used to reinforce in a metal matrix. Most
commonly used matrixes are aluminium, magnesium, copper, titanium, and zinc. The most
commonly used reinforcements are silicon carbide, aluminium, boron, and fly ash and also
granite particles. The strengthening effect of the reinforcements in composites depends on the
orientation of the reinforcements to the direction of the loads.

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Often, materials having high strength have relatively high density, also increasing the strength or
stiffness results in a decrease in impact strength. Engineers around the world have always been in
search of better combination of properties in materials.A new class of materials, called
‘’composite materials ‘’ has answered to this search to great extent. Composite materials are
those which are created artificially by combining two or more materials which usually have
dissimilar characteristics.The constituents of a composite material can be generally identified
macroscopically. This is in contrast to usual metallic alloys, whose phases can be identified only
under higher magnification microscopic examination.In the present study mechanical tests such
as tensile, compression, hardness and wear tests are conducted as per ASTM (American Society
for Testing and Materials) standards.

Due to the much more demand of strength, stiffness, wear resistance, toughness, and less dense
properties in materials for its usage in some automotive and aerospace components are developed
by composite materials. Al alloy-based composites are extensively used because of lightweight
with high specific strength in the aerospace and automotive industries. The metal matrix
composites (MMCs) are slowly replacing the general light metal alloys in different industrial
applications where strength, low mass with energy savings are the largely significant criteria.
When the metal used as a matrix so termed a metal-matrix composite (MMC).

The Mixture of various properties like electrical, mechanical, and even chemical can be achieved
by the use of different types of reinforcements through the MMCs. Today the composite are
widely implementing in all aspects of life. This deep penetration of MMCs in a wide variety of
application can be attributed to the before said advantages connected with them. Constant
investigation is underway to conquer these limitations and explore new potential.

1.1 Objective

The objectives of this project are

 To fabricate metal matrix composites with base metal as aluminium 6082 reinforced with a
volume of 10% of silicon carbide particulates by stir casting method.
 To study the cracks
 Visualization of microstructure in microscope

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CHAPTER-2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Natural particles reinforced composites have raised great attentions and interests among
materials scientists and engineers in recent years due to the considerations of developing an
environmental friendly material and partly replacing correctly used granite powder in reinforced
composites they are high specific strength and low prices, recyclable, easy available in some
countries, etc.

The Al metal matrix composites offer wide range of properties and suitable for a large
number of engineering applications. Sufficient literatures are available on different aspects of
tribology and machining of conventional metals and alloys but limited literature is available for
reinforced metal matrix composites. A composite is a material made by combining two or more
dissimilar materials in such a way that the resultant material is endowed with properties superior
to any of its parental once. Particle reinforced composite owing to their superior properties, are
usually applied in different fields like defence, aerospace, engineering applications, sports
goods, etc. Now a days, natural particle composite have gained increasing interest due to their
eco-friendly properties. a lot of work has been done by researchers based on these natural
particles. Granites, stones, lightweight, concrete, rice ask and char coal. Natural particles such as
a silicon carbide have the potential to be used as a replacement for traditional reinforcement
materials in composites for applications which requires high strength to weight ratio and further
weight reduction.So by using these silicon carbide particles the composite developed is cost
effective and perfect utilization of waste scrap.

Aluminium-silicon carbide powder casting alloys are the versatile of all common foundry
cast alloys in the production of pistons for automotive engines. Depending on the Si
concentration in weight percent, the Al-silicon particles alloy systems fall into three major
categories:hypereutectic (<12wt % Si), eutectic (12-13 wt%) and hypereutectic(14-25 wt % Si).
However, commercial applications for hyper eutectic alloys are relatively limited because they
are among the most difficult Al alloys to cast and machine due to the high Si contents.

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When high Si contents is alloyed into Al, it adds a large amount of heat capacity that must
be removed from the alloy to solidify it during a casting operation. Significant variation in the

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size of silicon carbide particles can be formed between different regions of the cast article,
resulting in a significant variation in the mechanical properties for the cast article. The primary
crystals of silicon carbide must be refined in order to achieve hardness and good wear resistance
on the other hand, usage of alloys are very popular for the industry, because they are more
economical to produce by casting, simpler to control the cast parameters, and easier to machine.
However, most of them are not suitable for high temperature applications, such as in the
automotive field, for the reason that their mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, are not
as desired in the temperature range 500oC to 640oC. The undesirable micro structure and phase
transformation results in drastically reduced mechanical properties, more particularly the
ultimate tensile strength and chemical composition test and hardness test with adding silicon
carbide particles.

One approach taken by art is to use ceramic fibres or ceramic particulates to increase the
strength of hypoeutecti and eutectic Al-Si alloys.This approach is known as the aluminium Metal
Matrix Composites(MMC) technology.For example,R.Bowles has used ceramic fibres to
improve tensile strength of ahypoeutectic 332.0 alloy,in a paper entitled,”Metal Matrix Hybrid
Composites Aid piston Manufactur,”Manufacturing Engineering,May1987.

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CHAPTER-3

COMPOSITE MATERIALS

Composite material is a material composed of two are more distinct phases (matrix phase and
dispersed phase) and having bulk properties significantly different from those of any of the
constitutes. Matrix phase is the primary phase having a continues character. Matrix is usually
more ductile and is a less hard phase. It holds the dispersed phase and shares load with it. The
second phase (are phases) is embedded in the matrix in a discontinuous form. The secondary
phase is called dispersed phase. Dispersed phase is usually stronger than the matrix there fore it
is sometimes called reinforcing phase. Many of common materials (metal alloys, doped ceramics
and polymer mixed with additives) also have a small amount of dispersed phases in their
structures, however they are not considered as composite materials since their properties are
similar to those of their base constituents.

Composite materials (also called composition materials or shortened to composites) are materials
made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical
properties, that when combined, produce a material with characteristics different from the
individual components. The individual components remain separate and distinct within the
finished structure.

Typical engineered composite materials include:

1. Composite building materials such as cements, concrete

2. Reinforced plastics such as fibre-reinforced polymer
3. Metal composites
4. Ceramic composites (composite ceramic and meta matrices)

Composite materials are generally used for buildings, bridges and structures such as boat hulls,
swimming pool panels, race car bodies, shower stalls, bathtubs and storage tanks, imitation
granite and cultured marble sinks and countertops. The most advanced examples perform
routinely on spacecraft in demanding environments.

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3.1CLASSIFICATION OF COMPOSITES

There are two classification systems of composite materials. One of them is based on the matrix
material in the second is based on the material structure.

3.2 BASED ON MATRIX

One commonly used classification of composites is based on matrix used based on the base
matrix composites can divide into three main groups: -

1. polymer matrix composites (PMCs)

2. ceramic matrix composites (CMCs)
3. metal matrix composites (MMCs)

3.2.1 Polymer matrix composites

Polymer matrix composite (PMC) is material consisting of polymer (resin) matrix combined with
a fibre reinforcing dispersed phase. Polymer matrix composites are very popular due to low cost
and simple fabrication method. Use of non-reinforce polymers as structure material is limited by
low level of their mechanical properties. For example that tensile strength of one of the strongest
polymer-epoxy resins is 20000/- psi (140MPa). In addition to relatively low strength, polymer,
material posses low impact resistance. Two types of polymer are used as matrix materials for
fabrication composites. Thermosets (epoxy, phenolics) and thermoplastics (low density
polyethylene (LDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene, nylon, acrylics).

According to the reinforcement material the group of polymer matrix composites (PMC) used are
fibre glasses, carbon fibres and Kevlar. Reinforcing may be arranged in the form of unidirectional
fibres, ravings, veil mat, chopped strands, woven fabric.

3.2.2 Ceramic matrix composites

Ceramic matrix composites (CMC) is material consisting of a ceramic matrix combined with a
ceramic (oxides, carbides) dispersed phase. Ceramic matrix composites are designed to improve
toughness of conventional ceramics, the main disadvantage of which is brittleness. Ceramic
matrix composites are reinforced by either continuous (long) fibres or discontinuous (short)

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fibres. These composites are mainly used for high temperature applications and in electronic
industries.

3.2.3 Metal matrix composites

Metal matrix composites (MMC) is material consisting of a metallic matrix combined with a
ceramic (oxides, carbides) or metallic (lead, tungsten, molybdenum) dispersed phase. Most
commonly used matrixes are aluminium, magnesium, copper, titanium, and zinc. The most
commonly used reinforcements are silicon carbide, alumina, boron, graphite, and fly ash.
Development of these materials is a subject of great interest as they offer attractive combination
of physical and mechanical properties, which cannot be obtained in monolithic alloy.

A metal matrix composites (MMC) is composite material with at least two constituent parts, one
being a metal. The other material may be a different metal or another material, such as a ceramic
or organic compound. When at least three materials are present, it is called a hybrid composite.
An MMC is complementary to a cement.

MMCs are made by dispersing a reinforced material into a metal matrix. The reinforcement
surface can be coated to prevent a chemical reaction with the matrix. For example, carbon fibre
are commonly used in aluminium matrix to synthesize composites- showing low density and high
strength. However, carbon reacts with aluminium to generate a brittle and water-soluble
compound on the surface of the fiber. To prevent this reaction, the carbon fibres are coated with
nickel or titanium boride.

3.3 Advantages of hybrid materials over traditional composites: .

1 Resistance- to a wide range of chemical agents including acid rain and salt spray, conditions
under which metal parts would suffer. This results in much reduced maintenance and repair
costs.
2. Resilience – the ability to deform and spring back to their original shape without major
damage. Shape memory and impact tolerance are two of the biggest advantages of composites,
particularly within the transport industry.
3. Low weight – with substantial savings in weight over similar metal parts (25% the weight of
steel, 30% lighter than aluminium) cost savings are noticeable with installation, handling and
particularly fuel consumption, when in service. Even greater weight savings are achieved when
two components, previously manufactured out of steel or aluminium, are combined in one
composite structure. This also gives savings in the installation process.
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4. Adhesive and coating compatibility – since composites and adhesives/coatings share a similar
polymeric make-up, they are widely compatible with one another.
5. Thermal properties – composite structures act as very good insulators, whilst retaining their
shape while not becoming brittle in cold temperatures.
6. Strength – comparable to aluminium and steel, strength characteristics of many materials can
be reproduced through research and development with reinforcements, eg. glass.
7. Innovative designs which were previously impractical can be achieved with composites with
no loss in performance or strength.
8. Safety – fibre-reinforced composites are low in electrical conductivity and are efficient fire
retardants, which makes them a good choice for covering electrical parts.
9. Reduced cost – effective techniques have been developed which produce a post-mould paint-
finish type surface which requires no further processing, thus eliminating the need for time
consuming and expensive finishing. For composites which have been designed to be painted, the
part manufacture can include allowances for a surface finish suitable for the keying-in and
adhesion of the finish.

3.3 Mechanical properties of AA 6082:-

Aluminium alloy 6082 is a medium strength alloy with excellent corrosion resistance. It has the
highest strength of the 6000 series alloys. Alloy 6082 is known as a structural alloy. In plate
form, Aluminium alloy 6082 is the alloy most commonly used for machining. As a relatively new
alloy, the higher strength of Alluminium alloy 6082 has seen it replace 6061 in many
applications. The addition of a large amount of manganese controls the grain structure which in
turn results in a stronger alloy. The tighter chemical band ensures more consistent anodising
between batches. In the T6 and T651 temper, Aluminium alloy 6082 machines well and produces
tight coils of swarf when chip breakers are used.
Mechanical Properties Metric
Hardness, Vickers 95
Tensile Strength, Ultimate 290 MPa
310 MPa
Tensile Strength, Yield 250 MPa
260 MPa
Elongation at Break 10 %

3.4 The composition of AA 6082:-

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The alloy composition of 6082 aluminium is:[2]

 Aluminium: 95.2 to 98.3%

 Chromium: 0.25% max
 Copper: 0.1% max
 Iron: 0.5% max
 Magnesium: 0.6 to 1.2%
 Manganese: 0.4% to 1.0%
 Silicon: 0.7 to 1.3%
 Titanium: 0.1% max
 Zinc: 0.2% max
 Residuals: 0.15% max

3.5 GENERAL DESCRIPTION AA6082:-

6082 aluminium alloy is an alloy in the wrought aluminium-magnesium-silicon family (6000

or 6xxx series). It is one of the more popular alloys in its series (alongside alloys 6005, 6061,
and 6063), although it is not strongly featured in ASTM (North American) standards. It is
typically formed by extrusion and rolling, but as a wrought alloy it is not used in casting. It can
also be forged and clad, but that is not common practice with this alloy. It cannot be work
hardened, but is commonly heat treated to produce tempers with a higher strength but lower
ductility.

3.6 Sic Ceramic Properties:-

Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum is a material which is also called
a semiconductor containing silicon and carbon. It occurs in nature as the extremely rare
mineral moissanite. Synthetic SiC powder has been mass-produced since 1893 for use as
an abrasive. Grains of silicon carbide can be bonded together by sintering to form very
hard ceramics that are widely used in applications requiring high endurance, such as car
brakes, car clutches and ceramic plates in bulletproof vests. Electronic applications of
silicon carbide such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and detectors in early radios were first
demonstrated around 1907. SiC is used in semiconductor electronics devices that operate at
high temperatures or high voltages, or both. Large single crystals of silicon carbide can be
grown by the Lely method and they can be cut into gems known as synthetic moissanite.

3.5 SILICON CARBIDE ENGINEERING PROPERTIES:-

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Synthestic sic powder has been mass produced since 1893 for use an
abrasive.Grains of silicon carbide can be bonded together by sintering to form very
hard ceramics that are widely used in applications requiring high endurances,such
as car brakes,car clutches and ceramic plates in bullet proof vests.

CHAPTER-4
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 INTRODUCTION

STIRCASTING PROCESS

4.1 Types of casting process

1.Sand casting

2.Plaster mould casting

3.Investment casting

4. Die casting

5. Stir casting

1. Melt stirring

2. Gas pressure infiltration

3. Squeeze casting or pressure casting.

4.2- Introduction

Aluminium metal matrix composites (AMMCs) have gained significant attention in

recent years. This is primarily due to their lightweight, low coefficient of thermal expansion
(CTE), machinability, and improved mechanical properties, such as increased tensile strength
(UTS), and hardness, wear test, microstructure, compression strength Due to these advantages,
they are used in aerospace industries (airframe and aerospace components), automobile
industries (engine pistons), and electronic components.

Stir casting (vortex technique) is generally accepted commercially as a low-cast method

for fabricating AMMCs. Its advantages lie in its simplicity, flexibility, and applicability to large
volume production. This process is the most economical of all the available routes for AMMCs
production, and it allows very large-sized components to be fabricated. However, methods of
achieving the following in stir casting most be considered:

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Fig 4.1 Stir casting equipment

(i) No adverse chemical reaction between the reinforcement material and matrix alloy,
(ii) No or very low porosity in the cast AMMCs,
(iii) Wettability between the two main phases, and
(iv) Achieving a uniform distribution of the reinforcement material. Wettability and reactivity
determine the quality of the bonding between the constituents and, thereby, greatly affect
the final properties of the composite material.

The addition of alloying elements can modify the matrix metal alloy by producing a
transient layer between the particles and the liquid matrix. This transient layer has a low wetting
angle, decreases the surface tension of the liquid, and surrounds the particles with a structure that
is similar to both the particle and the matrix alloy. Our previous study indicated that Mg is the
best metal among Ca, Ti, Zn, Si, and Zr for increasing the incorporation % of micron-sized
silicon carbide particles by molten pure aluminium.

In this study, micron sized-slicon carbide particles were used as reinforcement of pure
aluminium to fabricate as-cast aluminium matrix composite, and Mg addition (1 wt. %) was

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aided to improve the wettability and incorporation % of ceramic particles. The main aim of this
study is to lessen the defects of stir casting method and improve the quality of the fabricated
composites. Therefore, factors of reaction at matrix/ceramic interface, porosity, ceramic
incorporation, and agglomeration of particles were evaluated. The mechanical properties of the
composites were also investigated and their relation with the corresponding microstructures was
discussed.

4.3Experimental Procedures

Aluminium ingot with 99.8 in wt. % commercial purity was used as a matrix. The
chemical composition of the used ingot obtained using a optical emission.

4.3.1. Chemical composition of the pure aluminium used in this study

Micron-sized Sic particles with an average particle size of 80 µm and 99.9 % purity were
supplied (Shanghai Dingaan Chemical Co., Ltd. China) as the reinforcement of metal matrix
composite. The morphology of the silicon carbide particles used in this study is shown in the

In order to fabricate the composites, one gram of reinforcement silicon carbide powder
was encapsulated carefully in an aluminium foil packet for insertion into the molten aluminium
in order to fabricate a composite with 3 wt. % granite as reinforcement. These powders were pre-
heated at 350 °C for 4 h before the casting process for removing the moisture and impurities.
The pure aluminium was heated to various temperatures of 680 and 850°C within a bottom-
pouring furnace. A pre-heated stirrer was placed below the surface of melt and rotated with a
speed of 500 rpm and simultaneously argon with a high purity was used as a protective shroud
on the melt surface. It shows the schematic of the vortex casting set-up used for casting process.
The composite slurry was poured into a low-carbon steel mould. As mentioned, 1 % Mg scrap
(mass fraction) was added to the melt to increase the wettability between the matrix and the
reinforcements.

In summary, three samples were fabricated in this study, which their fabrication routes
are shown in Table 2. Generally, a lower stirring time is beneficial due to three important
reasons. First, a lower casting duration is economically preferred. Second, the reaction
occurrence between matrix and reinforcement might need a long exposure time, meaning that

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this detrimental phenomenon might be avoided using a lower amount of stirring time. Third,
higher casting duration may lead to entrance of a higher amount of porosity after solidification.
Therefore, sample S1 was designed in this study to investigate if further stirring after particle
feeding is necessary or not. As shown in Table 2, the process of particle feeding during casting
process was lasted for 2 min for all the samples. However, irrespective of sample S1, the stirring
was continued for extra 4 min after this 2 min time of feeding process. In fact, the ceramic
particles for sample S1 have no time after incorporation to be stirred and distributed in molten
metal.

4.3.2. Characteristics of the samples fabricated in this study

The specimens were prepared for metallographic examinations using 220-320-500-1000
mesh emery papers, followed by polishing with diamond paste 1µm. Microscopic methods were
used to study the composite structure and fracture surface using two kinds of scanning electron
microscopes and an optical microscope. A high-resolution transmissionelectron microscope
(HRTEM, Philips CM200) at an accelerating voltage of 200 kV was also used to study the
reaction occurrence at the interface of aluminium matrix and granite particles.

Microhardness tests were conducted according to ASTM E384 using an applied load of
50 g for a 15 s duration. At least ten measurements were taken from fabricated samples. Tensile
specimens were also prepared from the as cast composites. All of the tensile tests were
performed at room temperature using an Instron type-testing machine operating at a constant rate
of crosshead displacement, with an initial strain rate of 2×10-3 s-1. The 0.2% proof strength
andultimate tensile strength and ductility (% elongation to break) were measured and averaged
over 3 test samples. For a fair judgment about mechanical properties, the density of the samples
was measured using Archimedes’ principle. Distilled water was used as the immersion fluid.
Theoretical density was calculated by rule of mixture and compared with the measured densities.

In order to determine the onset reaction temperature between pure aluminium and granite
powders, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis (Netsch STA 409, Germany) was
used. For this purpose, a same weight of aluminium and granite powders were mixed for 30 min
using a low-energy ball-mill to make a suitable contact between them and break the possible

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oxide layer on the aluminium surface, and the milled powders were then heated from 25 to
800°C with the heating rate of 10 °C/min using pure argon atmosphere and alumina crucible.

4.4. Reaction between aluminium matrix and silicon carbide particles

It was reported that from 657 to 827 °C, silicon carbide interacts with aluminium via a
dissolution precipitation process. This mechanism involves the migration of carbon atoms from
places where the sic surface is in direct contact with the aluminium to the growing faces of Al
crystals located at or close to the aluminium-silicon carbide interface. The Al brittle compound
has detrimental influences within the composite and reduces the strength and ductility, and also
it reacts with liquid water or with moisture in the ambient, debilitating even more the composite.

The reaction is thermodynamically possible because the standard free energy change for
this reaction is negative and Al and Si are the two major interfacial reaction products. As
mentioned, the migration of carbon atoms (exchange of atoms) is involved in a chemical
reaction, leading to wettability and bonding improvement. Therefore, it seems that Al formation
to a low extent is suitable for required bonding between granite and aluminium. However,
intensive reaction between Al and silicon carbide due to long exposure time or very high casting
temperature which leads to the formation of a thicker layer of Al might not to be suitable for
AMMCs.

It shows the thermal analysis of the ball-milled Al-granite mixture. As it can be seen, just
after the melting of aluminium at about 670 °C, an exothermic trend could be observed, which
corresponds to the occurrence of a reaction between Al and silicon carbide, leading to a large
release of heat. It seems that reaction was occurred completely at about 720 °C. This figure
indicates that Al and silicon carbide tend to react with each other just after melting of the
aluminium.

In order to evaluate the reaction occurrence between Al and silicon carbide and observe
the boding of silicon carbide with aluminium matrix, HRTEM analysis was used for all the
samples. It shows the nanostructure of sample S1. As it can be seen, a relative clean interface
was formed between crystalline silicon carbide and aluminium matrix, and no trace of Al could
be observed at or near the interface, meaning that 2 min stirring at 680 °C is not high enough for

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the migration of carbon atoms and formation a suitable bond between Al and granite particles. It
is very important to note that aluminium foils contain silicon carbide particles were not
simultaneously entered into the melt and therefore, some of the particles had less than 2 min
time for stirring and boding to the matrix. It has been reported that Al appears as needle or slice
like on the interface toward the matrix side in HRTEM micrograph and no trace of Al could be
detected in this sample.

It shows the nanostructure of sample S2, in which particles were exposed to the molten
aluminium for 6 min during stirring. A very good physical bonding seems to be formed for this
sample between Al and crystalline silicon carbide and after too long characterization, needle like
Alphase was detected with a different orientation growth from the crystalline plane orientations
of silicon carbide. However, it should be noted that the size of this needle-like phase seems to be
less than 8 nm in height.

Therefore, it is concluded that this phase could be fabricated after 6 min stirring at
680°C. During detection of Al for sample S3 at the interface using a very high magnification, it
was found that exposure of silicon carbide with molten aluminium at 850 °C highly affects the
formation and growth of this phase even just after 6 min stirring. It shows the nanostructure of
sample S3. As it can be seen, Al with a height of about 120 nm was simply detected at the
Al/silicon carbide interface which selected area diffraction (SAD) pattern of the corresponding
phase confirms its formation with a crystalline structure, which it is not clear if this large sized
phase could adversely affect the mechanical properties.

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