Evaluation of the effect of strontium and tungsten carbide on the microstructure evolution, tribological and mechanical behaviour of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-5Sr-WC metal matrix composite

Jeffin JOHNSON; Rosari RAJA

doi:10.55713/jmmm.v34i2.1793

ผู้แต่ง

Jeffin JOHNSON Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Coimbatore, 641114, India
Rosari RAJA Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Coimbatore, 641114, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55713/jmmm.v34i2.1793

คำสำคัญ:

Al7075, Strontium, Tungsten Carbide, Microstructure, Wear analysis, Metal matrix composite

บทคัดย่อ

The present study focused on the experimental investigation of the metallurgical, tribological, and mechanical behavior of the developed Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Sr-WC (Al7075-Sr-WC) metal matrix composite. The effect of the reinforcements such as strontium and tungsten carbide (WC) along with a 2 wt% magnesium as the wetting agent during the stir casting of the synthesized aluminum metal matrix composite (MMC) was investigated by varying the weight percentages. The microstructure examination was characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) techniques. Wear analysis and mechanical testing were conducted to study the effect of WC particles in the matrix phase by examining their wear rate, tensile strength, proof strength, and hardness values. From the mechanical and tribological tests, it was observed that there was an increase of 55% in hardness and 43% in tensile strength, along with a 31% reduction in wear rate. The secondary phases revealed from XRD analysis lead to more hardness along the refined grain boundaries. The tensile strength of the composite initially increased with a 3 wt% of WC and 5 wt% strontium due to hindrance to the dislocation movement but decreased with more reinforcement particles caused by brittleness. The hard WC particles presence has reduced the wear rate significantly due to its resistance towards abrasive wear and lubricating effect. The unique combination of a grain refiner and a binder helped develop a novel composite with superior characteristics that could replace many aerospace components made up of Al7075 alloy.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

เอกสารอ้างอิง

R. Farajollahi, H. Jamshidi Aval, and R. Jamaati, “Effects of Ni on the microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties of AA2024-Al3NiCu composite fabricated by stir casting process,” Journal of Alloys and Compounds, vol. 887, p. 161433, 2021.

M. Shayan, B. Eghbali, and B. Niroumand, “Fabrication of AA2024−TiO2 nanocomposites through stir casting process,” Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, vol. 30, no. 11, pp. 2891-2903, 2020.

A. H. Idrisi, and A. H. I. Mourad, “Conventional stir casting versus ultrasonic assisted stir casting process: Mechanical and physical characteristics of AMCs,” Journal of Alloys and Compounds, vol. 805, pp. 502-508, 2019.

S. R. Prabhu, A. K. Shettigar, M. A. Herbert, and S. S. Rao, “Microstructure and mechanical properties of rutile-reinforced AA6061 matrix composites produced via stir casting process,” Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, vol. 29, no. 11, pp. 2229-2236, 2019.

B. Kumar Show, D. Kumar Mondal, K. Biswas, and J. Maity, “Development of a novel 6351 Al-(Al4SiC4+SiC) hybrid composite with enhanced mechanical properties,” Materials Science and Engineering A, vol. 579, pp. 136-149, 2013.

M. O. Bodunrin, K. K. Alaneme, and L. H. Chown, “Aluminium matrix hybrid composites: A review of reinforcement philosophies; Mechanical, corrosion and tribological characteristics,” Journal of Materials Research and Technology, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 434-445, 2015.

G. Nageswaran, S. Natarajan, and K. R. Ramkumar, “Synthesis, structural characterization, mechanical and wear behaviour of Cu-TiO2-Gr hybrid composite through stir casting technique,” Journal of Alloys and Compounds, vol. 768, pp. 733-741, 2018.

A. Jamwal, P. P. Seth, D. Kumar, R. Agrawal, K. K. Sadasivuni, and P. Gupta, “Microstructural, tribological and compression behaviour of Copper matrix reinforced with Graphite-SiC hybrid composites,” Materials Chemistry and Physics, vol. 251, no. June 2019, p. 123090, 2020.

J. Singh, and A. Chauhan, “Fabrication characteristics and tensile strength of novel Al2024/SiC/red mud composites processed via stir casting route,” Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, vol. 27, no. 12, pp. 2573-2586, 2017.

E. A. M. Shalaby, A. Y. Churyumov, A. N. Solonin, and A. Lotfy, “Preparation and characterization of hybrid A359/(SiC+Si3N4) composites synthesized by stir/squeeze casting techniques,” Materials Science and Engineering A, vol. 674, pp. 18-24, 2016.

H. Şevik and S. C. Kurnaz, “The effect of strontium on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-6Al-0.3Mn-0.3Ti-1Sn,” Journal of Magnesium and Alloys, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 214-219, 2014.

K. Hirai, H. Somekawa, Y. Takigawa, and K. Higashi, “Effects of Ca and Sr addition on mechanical properties of a cast AZ91 magnesium alloy at room and elevated temperature,” Materials Science and Engineering A, vol. 403, no. 1-2, pp. 276-280, 2005.

S. F. Liu, B. Li, X. H. Wang, W. Su, and H. Han, “Refinement effect of cerium, calcium and strontium in AZ91 magnesium alloy,” Journal of Materials Processing Technology, vol. 209, no. 8, pp. 3999-4004, 2009.

M. Yang, F. Pan, R. Cheng, and A. Tang, “Effect of Mg-10Sr master alloy on grain refinement of AZ31 magnesium alloy,” Materials Science and Engineering A, vol. 491, no. 1-2, pp. 440-445, 2008.

M. R. S. Ganesh, N. Reghunath, M. J. Levin, A. Prasad, S. Doondi, and K. V. Shankar, "Strontium in Al–Si–Mg Alloy: A Review," Metals and Materials International, vol. 28, no. 1, The Korean Institute of Metals and Materials, 2022.

M. O. Pekguleryuz, and J. E. Gruzleski, “Dissolution of reactive strontium-containing alloys in liquid aluminum and A356 melts,” Metallurgical Transactions B, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 815-831, 1989.

S. Arivukkarasan, V. Dhanalakshmi, B. Stalin, and M. Ravichandran, “Mechanical and tribological behaviour of tungsten carbide reinforced aluminum LM4 matrix composites,” Particulate Science and Technology, vol. 36, no. 8, pp. 967-973, 2018.

C. Fenghong, C. Chang, W. Zhenyu, T. Muthuramalingam, and G. Anbuchezhiyan, “Effects of silicon carbide and tungsten carbide in aluminium metal matrix composites,” Silicon, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 2625-2632, 2019.

G. V. N. Prakash, “Study on mechanical behavior of tungsten carbide and graphite reinforced aluminium metal matrix composite,” International Journal of Mechanical Engineering, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 1168-1173, 2022.

P. Vijay, K. V. Brahma Raju, K. Ramji, and S. Kamaluddin, “Effect of tungsten carbide on Al6061/SiC hybrid metal matrix composites,” Composites Theory and Practice, vol. 2021, no. 4, pp. 169-180, 2021.

V. Govindarajan, R. Sivakumar, Pravin P. Patil, S. Kaliyappan, T. Ch Anil Kumar, M. Kannan, and B, Ramesh, “Effect of tungsten carbide addition on the microstructure and mechanical behavior of titanium matrix developed by powder metallurgy route,” Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 2022, 2022.

M. Razavi, and I. Mobasherpour, “Production of aluminum nano-composite reinforced by tungsten carbide particles via mechanical milling and subsequent hot pressing,” International Journal of Materials Research., vol. 105, no. 11, pp. 1103-1110, 2014.

A. Ramanathan, P. K. Krishnan, and R. Muraliraja, “A review on the production of metal matrix composites through stir casting – Furnace design, properties, challenges, and research opportunities,” Journal of Manufacturing Processes, vol. 42, no. April, pp. 213-245, 2019.

M. Y. Zhou, L. B. Ren, L. L. Fan, T. W. X. Zhang, T. H. Lu, G. F. Quan, and M. Gupta, “Progress in research on hybrid metal matrix composites,” Journal of Alloys and Compounds, vol. 838, 2020.

V. Chak, H. Chattopadhyay, and T. L. Dora, “A review on fabrication methods, reinforcements and mechanical properties of aluminum matrix composites,” Journal of Manufacturing Processes, vol. 56, no. June, pp. 1059-1074, 2020.

P. Samal, P. R. Vundavilli, A. Meher, and M. M. Mahapatra, “Recent progress in aluminum metal matrix composites: A review on processing, mechanical and wear properties,” Journal of Manufacturing Processes, vol. 59, no. September, pp. 131–-152, 2020.

T. Dursun, and C. Soutis, “Recent developments in advanced aircraft aluminium alloys,” Materials and Design, vol. 56, pp. 862-871, 2014.

K. Ravikumar, K. Kiran, and V. S. Sreebalaji, “Characterization of mechanical properties of aluminium/tungsten carbide composites,” Measurement, vol. 102, pp. 142-149, 2017.

S. Devaganesh, P. K. D. Kumar, N. Venkatesh, and R. Balaji, “Study on the mechanical and tribological performances of hybrid SiC-Al7075 metal matrix composites,” Journal of Materials Research and Technology, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 3759-3766, 2020.

G. B. V. Kumar, C. S. P. Rao, and N. Selvaraj, “Mechanical and dry sliding wear behavior of Al7075 alloy-reinforced with SiC particles,” Journal of Composite Materials, vol. 46, no. 10, pp. 1201-1209, 2012.

B. Subramaniam, B. Natarajan, B. Kaliyaperumal, and S. J. S. Chelladurai, “Investigation on mechanical properties of aluminium 7075 - boron carbide - coconut shell fly ash reinforced hybrid metal matrix composites,” China Foundry, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 449-456, 2018.

M. Imran, and A. R. A. Khan, “Characterization of Al-7075 metal matrix composites: A review,” Journal of Materials Research and Technology, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 3347-3356, 2019.

C. Garcia-Cordovilla, E. Louis, and A. Pamies, “The surface tension of liquid pure aluminium and aluminium-magnesium alloy,” Journal of Materials Science, vol. 21, no. 8, pp. 2787-2792, 1986.

R. Sezer, G. Hızlı, A. Bilen, S. Ertürk, D. Dışpınar, and C. Arslan, “Metallothermic production of aluminum–strontium master alloy for modification of silicon,” Metallography, Microstructure, and Analysis, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 833-840, 2020.

N. Fat-Halla, P. Secordel, and M. Suery, “Microstructure and mechanical properties of modified and non-modified stir-cast Al-Si hypoeutectic alloys,” Journal of Materials Science, vol. 23, no. 7, pp. 2419-2423, 1988.

A. Properties, and P. Metallurgy, “Micro-structure of alloys,” Nature, vol. 56, no. 1456, pp. 506-507, 1897.

N. Radhika, J. Sasikumar, and R. Jojith, “Effect of Grain modifier on mechanical and tribological properties of al-si alloy and composite,” Silicon, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 841-855, 2021.

T. Rajmohan, K. Palanikumar, and S. Ranganathan, “Evaluation of mechanical and wear properties of hybrid aluminium matrix composites,” Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, vol. 23, no. 9, pp. 2509-2517, 2013.

K. R. Kumar, K. M. Mohanasundaram, R. Subramanian, and B. Anandavel, “Influence of fly ash particles on tensile and impact behaviour of aluminium (Al/3Cu/8.5Si) metal matrix composites,” Science and Engineering of Composite Materials, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 181-189, 2014.

H. R. Lashgari, A. R. Sufizadeh, and M. Emamy, “The effect of strontium on the microstructure and wear properties of A356-10%B4C cast composites,” Materials and Design, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 2187-2195, 2010.