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Experimental investigations on mechanical behavior of aluminium metal matrix composites

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2016 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 149 012121

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IConAMMA-2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 149 (2016) 012121 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012121

Experimental investigations on mechanical behavior of

aluminium metal matrix composites
Rajesh A M 1, Mohammed Kaleemulla 2,

1
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, S.J.M.I.T, Chitradurga, Karnataka, India
2
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, UBDTCE, Davangere, Karnataka, India
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Today we are widely using aluminium based metal matrix composite for structural, aerospace,
marine and automobile applications for its light weight, high strength and low production cost. The
purpose of designing metal matrix composite is to add the desirable attributes of metals and ceramics to
the base metal. In this study we developed aluminium metal matrix hybrid composite by reinforced
Aluminium7075 alloy with silicon carbide (SiC) and aluminium oxide (alumina) by method of stir
casting. This technique is less expensive and very effective. The Hardness test and Wear test were
performed on the specimens which are prepared by stir casting techniques. The result reveals that the
addition of silicon carbide and alumina particles in aluminium matrix improves the mechanical properties.

1. Introduction

The wear behaviour and hardness plays an important role in selecting the metal matrix composites
for using in various industries, automobiles etc. Aluminium (Al) based metal matrix composites i.e.,
AMCs is widely using in aerospace, automotive and agricultural industries etc. For the study and
conducting experiment, first we should know about the Metal Matrix composites. A composite
material is a material composed of two or more constituents. The constituents are combined at a
microscopic level and are not soluble in each other. Generally, a composite material is composed of
reinforcement (fibers, particles/ particulates, flakes, and/or fillers) embedded in a matrix (metals,
polymers). The matrix holds the reinforcement to form the desired shape while the reinforcement
improves the overall mechanical properties of the matrix. When designed properly, the new combined
material exhibits better strength than would each individual material. The most primitive man-made
composite materials are straw and mud combined to form bricks for building construction [1].

Metal matrix composites (MMCs), like all composites; consist of at least two chemically and
physically distinct phases, suitably distributed to provide properties not obtainable with either of the
individual phases. Generally, there are two phases either a fibrous or particulate phase in a metallic
matrix. For e.g. Al2O3 fiber reinforced in a copper matrix for superconducting magnets and SiC

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IConAMMA-2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 149 (2016) 012121 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012121

particle reinforced with in the Al matrix composites used in aero space, automotive and thermal
management applications [2].

For many researchers the term metal matrix composites is often equated with the term light
metal matrix composites (MMCs). Substantial progress in the development of light metal matrix
composites has been achieved in recent decades, so that they could be introduced into the most
important applications. In traffic engineering, especially in the automotive industry, MMCs have been
used commercially in fiber reinforced pistons and aluminium crank cases with strengthened cylinder
surfaces as well as particle strengthened brake disks. These innovative materials open up unlimited
possibilities for modern material science and development; the characteristics of MMCs can be
designed into the material, custom-made, dependent on the application [2].

The matrix is the monolithic material into which the reinforcement is embedded, and is
completely continuous. This means that there is a path through the matrix to any point in the material,
unlike two materials sandwiched together. In structural applications, the matrix is usually a lighter
metal such as aluminium, magnesium, or titanium, and provides a compliant support for the
reinforcement. In high temperature applications, cobalt and cobalt-nickel alloy are common.

The role of the reinforcement in a composite material is fundamentally one of increasing the
mechanical properties of the neat resin system. All of the different particulates/ fibres used in
composites have different properties and so affect the properties of the composite in different ways.
Aluminium is the most abundant metal in the Earth's crust, and the third most abundant element, after
oxygen and silicon. It makes up about 8% by weight of the Earth's solid surface. The chief source of
aluminium is bauxite ore. Its Atomic number is 13. Aluminium is a soft, durable, lightweight, ductile
and malleable metal with appearance ranging from silvery to dull gray, depending on the surface
roughness. Aluminium is nonmagnetic and non-sparking. Aluminium has about one-third the density
and stiffness of steel. It is easily machined, cast, drawn and extruded. Corrosion resistance can be
excellent due to a thin surface layer of aluminium oxide that forms when the metal is exposed to air,
effectively preventing further oxidation.

The aluminium alloy Al-7075 has been selected as the matrix material is more compatible
with the reinforcement and has good mechanical property and castability at the alloy level itself. The
application of the alloy in automobile and aircraft application itself indicated that it is the proper
selection. The material is also having good response to age hardening, heat treatment process and
precipitation hardening. The reinforcement selected as alumina (Al 2O3) in the form of particle size 50
micron to 150 micron. It is more stable with aluminium and withstands high temperature. It is an oxide
ceramic having low affinity for the oxygen to form oxides. The particulate form of the reinforcement
has better distribution in the matrix to provide isotropic property for the composite. The Silicon
carbide has been selected as the next ceramic which is a carbide type of ceramic. The SiC has good
lubricating effect along with it reduces the noise and vibration during the relative motion.
Aluminium7075 is an aluminium alloy in which zinc is a primary alloying element. The composition
and properties of aluminium7075 is shown below;

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IConAMMA-2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 149 (2016) 012121 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012121

Table 1: Composition of AL7075 [3]

ELEMENT Cu Cr Mn Mg Si Ti Zn Fe Al

PERCENT 1.6 0.15 0.3 2.5 0.4 0.2 5.5 0.5 88.85
(%)

Table 2 : Properties of Aluminium 7075 [3]

Mechanical properties value

Hardness –Brinell 150

Ultimate tensile strength 572MPa

Tensile yield strength 503Mpa

Elongation at beak 11%

Modulus of Elasticity 71.7Gpa

Poisson’s ratio 0.33

Fatigue strength 159Mpa

Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum, is a compound of silicon and carbon with
chemical formula SiC. It was originally produced by a high temperature electro-chemical reaction of
sand and carbon. Silicon carbide is an excellent abrasive and has been produced and made into
grinding wheels and other abrasive products for over one hundred years. Today the material has been
developed into a high quality technical grade ceramic with very good mechanical properties. It is used
in abrasives, refractories, ceramics, and numerous high-performance applications. The material can
also be made an electrical conductor and has applications in resistance heating, flame igniters and
electronic components, floor tiles etc. Structural and wear applications are constantly developing.
Silicon carbide is composed of tetrahedra of carbon and silicon atoms with strong bonds in the crystal
lattice. This produces a very hard and strong material. Silicon carbide having 16-100grit size [2].

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IConAMMA-2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 149 (2016) 012121 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012121

Table 3: Properties of Silicon Carbide [3]

Property values

Melting Point °C 2200-2700

Hardness(k g/mm2) 2800

Density(g/ cm3) 3.1

Coefficient of thermal 4.0

expansion(micron/m °C)
Fracture Toughness 4.6

Poisson’s ratio 0.14

Colour Black

The chemical formula of aluminium oxide is Al2O3. It is commonly referred to as alumina, or

corundum in its crystalline form, as well as many other names, reflecting its widespread occurrence in
nature and industry. Alumina (Al2O3) is the most cost effective and widely used material in the family
of engineering ceramics. The raw materials from which this high performance technical grade ceramic
is made are readily available and reasonably priced, resulting in good value for the cost in fabricated
alumina shapes. With an excellent combination of properties and an attractive price, it is no surprise
that fine grain technical grade alumina has a very wide range of applications. Its most significant use is
in the production of aluminium metal, although it is also used as an abrasive due to its hardness and as
a refractory material due to its high melting point [2].

Table 4 : Properties of Aluminium Oxide [3]

Property values

Melting Point °C 2072

Hardness(kg/m m2) 1175

Density(g/cm3) 3.69

Coefficient of thermal expansion(micron/m °C) 8.1

Fracture Toughness 3.5

Poisson’s ratio 0.21

Colour White

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IConAMMA-2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 149 (2016) 012121 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012121

2. Experiment

The matrix material Al-7075 obtained in the form of ingots. The ingots are cleaned to remove the
impurity, dust and oil and heated in graphite crucible in induction furnace. The quantity of alumina
and the reinforcement are shown in table 3.The melting temperature was held a t 720°C and the
reinforcement heated separately at 8500°C being added to the melt. The constant stirring of the melt
carried out with alumina stirrer to get uniform distribution of the ceramic particles. The stirring was
carried out for 10 minutes and the melt was poured in to graphite mould [3]. The stir casting process is
shown in below figure1.

Figure 1 : Stir casting technique

The composition percentage is chosen from the literature and the most common percentage is
used in the most of the literature was selected and is given below. According to volume fraction the
percentage of reinforcement of silicon carbide and aluminium oxide is varied in steps of 5% to 15%.
The weight of reinforcement is based on the weight of matrix material.

Table 5: specimen composition for varying volume fraction [3]

Specimen Code AL -7075 Al2O3 SiC

1 100% 0 0

2 90% 5% 5%

3 80% 10% 10%

4 70% 15% 15%

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IConAMMA-2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 149 (2016) 012121 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012121

2.1 Specimen preparation

Castings that are taken out from the mould having a diameter of 12mm and length 100mm and
another casting having a diameter of 25mm and length 100mm. These castings are machined in a
conventional lathe to a diameter of 10mm and length 35mm and polished in 1000grit emery paper for
making wear test. The another casting is reduced to 24mm diameter and 1inch length and polished in a
dry and wet polishing machine to get a high surface finish and making a hardness test on the
specimen. These specimen are prepared according to ASTM standard for testing. The wear test and
hardness tests are performed on the specimens and the readings are recorded.

3. Results and Discussions

The castings of circular cross section of 25mm diameter and 100mm length have been casted.
The specimens were machined to reduce the diameter to 24 mm and length to 1inch for microstructure
characterization and hardness test. All the tests are carried out as per ASTM standards. The Specimens
were grinded and polished with 300, 600, 900 and 1000 grit emery paper followed by dry and wet
polishing in polishing machine. The hardness test is conducted through vicker’s hardness tester having
a microscope of magnification 10X and 40X.

120

HARDNESS
118
VICKERS HARDNESS NUMBER

116

114

112

110

108

106
0% 5% 10% 15%
COMPOSITION OF SAMPLES

Fig 2: Graph of Percentage composition v/s Vickers Hardness Number

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IConAMMA-2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 149 (2016) 012121 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012121

Table 6 : vicker’s hardness number for various composition

COMPOSITION MEAN HARDNESS NO

Pure AL7075 107
Al7075+5%(SiC and Al2O3) 113
Al7075+10%(SiC+Al2O3) 119
Al7075+15%(SiC+Al2O3) 112

The Graph and Hardness table shows that pure aluminium having low hardness number and then the
hardness number increases as the percentage of reinforcement increases upto 10% of reinforcement
and the hardness number decrease at 15% reinforcement. Hence from the above data we can say that
the strength of the AMC is more at 10% of reinforcement of silicon carbide and aluminium oxide.
Wear test carried out on ‘wear and friction monitor TR-20 supplied by DUCOM, Bangalore. Rotating
disc against the loaded pin was used to determine the wear loss of the material at various conditions.
The wear simulations confirms to ASTM standards. Tests are conducted in dry conditions and with
rotating motion. The test parameter includes load, speed, temperature, roughness, shape and wear track
etc.

Figure 3: Wear and Friction monitor

It is very much essential and close approximate the actual conditions encountered the wear tests,
however the most sliding wear tests were carried out using pin-on-disc (Ducom TR-20-PHM-400)
type wear testing machine, with a large number of variables, which affect the wear mechanism and
wear rate Dry sliding wear tests for different number of specimens was conducted by using a pin-on-
disc machine .The The pin samples which are obtained after machined and polished were 35 mm in
length and 10 mm in diameter. The surfaces of the pin samples was slides using emery paper prior to
test in ordered to ensure effective contact of fresh and flat surface with the steel disc. The samples and
wear track were cleaned with acetone and weighed (up to an accuracy of 0.0001 gm using
microbalance) prior to and after each test. The wear rate was calculated according to Wear
measurement by mass change. In this experiment was conducted with various parameters such as load,
speed, distance, time etc.

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IConAMMA-2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 149 (2016) 012121 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012121

Figure 4. Wear and friction monitor

Table 7 : Numbers Indicating Samples

Identification Number Sample

1 Pure Al7075
2 Al7075+5%
3 Al7075+10%
4 Al7075+15%

0.0034
1 2
0.0032
3 4
0.0030
0.0028
0.0026
WEIGHT LOSS (gms)

0.0024
0.0022
0.0020
0.0018
0.0016
0.0014
0.0012
0.0010
0.0008
0.0006

20 30 40 50 60
LOAD in N

Figure 5 : Graph of Load v/s weight loss

Figure 5 Shows the Graph Plotted for 200 RPM having sliding distance=282.74m, time= 5minutes,
sliding velocity=0.9424m/s, track diameter=90mm shows that weight loss is less at 2kg of load, at 4kg
weight loss increases and at 6kg again the weight loss decreases.

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IConAMMA-2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 149 (2016) 012121 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012121

0.17
0.16
1 2
SPECIFIC WEAR RATE X 10 (mm /N-m) 0.15
3 4
0.14
3

0.13
0.12
-3

0.11
0.10
0.09
0.08
0.07
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03

20 30 40 50 60
LOAD in N

Figure 5.1 : Graph of Load v/s Specific Wear Rate

Fig.5.1 Shows the graph plotted for 200 RPM having sliding distance=282.74m, time= 5minutes,
sliding velocity=0.9424m/s, track diameter=90mm shows gradual decrease of specific wear rate as the
load is applied.

0.009

0.008 1 2
3 4
0.007
WEIGHT LOSS (gms)

0.006

0.005

0.004

0.003

0.002

0.001
20 30 40 50 60
LOAD in N

Figure 6 : Graph of Load v/s Weight loss

Fig.6 Shows the Graph plotted for 400 RPM having sliding distance=565.48m, time= 5minutes,
sliding velocity=0.9424m/s, track diameter=90mm shows that as the load increases the weight loss
decreases.

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IConAMMA-2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 149 (2016) 012121 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012121

0.30 1 2
3 4
SPECIFIC WEAR RATE X10 (mm /N-m)

0.25
3
-3

0.20

0.15

0.10

0.05

0.00
20 30 40 50 60
LOAD in N

Figure 6.1: Graph of Load v/s Specific Wear Rate

Fig.6.1 Shows the graph plotted for 400 RPM having sliding distance=565.48m, time= 5minutes,
sliding velocity=0.9424m/s, track diameter=90mm and it shows that as the load increases specific
wear rate decreases.

0.010

1 2
0.009 3 4

0.008
WEIGHT LOSS (gms)

0.007

0.006

0.005

0.004

0.003

20 30 40 50 60
LOAD in N

Figure 7: Graph of Load v/s Weight Loss

Fig.7 shows the graph plotted for 600 RPM having sliding distance=848.23m, time= 5minutes, sliding
velocity=0.9424m/s, track diameter=90mm and shows that load increases to 4kg weight loss is
increases for line 1 and 2 and weight loss decreases for the lines3 and 4. At 6kg load the weight loss
decreases for line 2 and increases for the remaining lines.

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IConAMMA-2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 149 (2016) 012121 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012121

0.12

0.11 1 2
3 4
SPECIFIC WEAR RATEX10 (mm /N-m)

0.10
3

0.09
-3

0.08

0.07

0.06

0.05

0.04

0.03

0.02
20 30 40 50 60
LOAD in N

Figure 7.1: Graph of Load v/s Specific Wear Rate

Fig.7.1. Shows the graph plotted for 600 rpm having sliding distance 848.23m, time=
5minutes, sliding velocity=0.9424m/s, track diameter=90mm and shows that as the load increases
gradually the specific wear rate decreases.

Aluminium 7075 alloy matrix composites with combined reinforcement of SiC and
Al2O3 have exhibited improved mechanical properties compared to the composites reinforced
with either sic and alumina alone. Hardness of the composite increase because of increase in
ceramic phase due to addition of sic particulates. Oxidation resistance of matrix material was
significantly improved using sic particulate with addition of Al2O3.

4. Conclusion

From the above research work, it is concluded that -

 By stir casting technique the hybrid metal matrix composite can be developed effectively.
 Wear rate found to increase with increase in load and sliding distance. Amount of wear
reduces at higher speed than at lower speed of disc.
 The addition of Sic as secondary ceramic reduction in the noise and vibration during the
motion.
 By analysing all the graphs and hardness number we can conclude that aluminium metal
matrix composite is having higher strength when 10% of silicon carbide and aluminium oxide
is added to aluminium7075 alloy.

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IConAMMA-2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 149 (2016) 012121 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012121

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