Investigations on mechanical wear and corrosion behaviour of al 7075 sic tic hybrid metal matrix composites

Abstract

Aluminium alloy components are used in light weight general engineering applications but they lack mechanical properties resistance to wear and corrosion When hard reinforcement particulates are dispersed in the aluminium matrix alloy an Aluminium Matrix Composites AMCs is formed This new material exhibits enhanced properties like better specific strength specific stiffness elastic modulus wear resistance corrosion resistance and light weight AMCs have many favourable properties compared to their alloy and wide range of applications Especially in an aerospace industry where weight reduction and increase in modulus is prevalent the strength to weight ratio is more important AMCs are developed by either solid metallurgy or liquid metallurgy route In the present research the casting technique is used to distribute the particulates into the aluminium alloy molten metal Al 7075 hybrid composites are developed by two step stir casting technique with different volume percentages of 5 10 and 15 volume percentage of Silicon Carbide SiC and Titanium Carbide TiC The equal amount of 2 5 5 and 7 5 vol of SiC and 2 5 5 and 7 5 vol of TiC are utilized The particle sizes of reinforcement of SiC range from 25 35 and#956;m while TiC ranges from 20 30 and#956;m The hard reinforcement particles of SiC TiC play a vital role in the new material properties An attempt is made in the present research to investigate the physical and mechanical properties in addition to wear and corrosion behaviour of the newly developed Al 7075 alloy matrix composites newline newline newline