Experimental Studies on Friction Stir Processing FSP of Composites

Abstract

The use of lightweight materials is preferred in the majority of industries including those that deal with aeronautics, automobiles, shipbuilding. Alloys of aluminum, titanium, and magnesium are lighter in weight, but their strength and stiffness are not adequate for structural applications. By using reinforcement mechanical properties of these alloys can be enhanced. Out of various plastic deformation techniques, Friction Stir Processing (FSP) is an innovative technique employed for the development of surface composites, surface modification, and refining the microstructure. In this research work, an attempt is made to design and development of metal composites and polymer composites. A novel approach is attempted to integrate FSP process with Additive Manufacturing (AM) technique and hence a polymer composite is developed using Friction Stir Additive Manufacturing (FSAM). The present work focuses on improving the mechanical properties of the Al alloy and polymer materials by reinforcing hard materials. In this study Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs), Silicon dioxide (SiO2), and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) are used as reinforcement materials for base materials Al 6061, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), and Poly Lactic Acid (PLA). newline The tensile strength (TS) of Al6061 is increased by 55.1% with reinforcement of MWCNTs. Similarly, TS of Al6061 is enhanced by 4.4% with SiO2, and 7.7% with Al2O3. Likewise, enhancement of average hardness of Al6061 is also reported, 35.1% with MWCNTs, 12.9% with SiO2, and 15.72% with Al2O3. Further, a good result in terms of tensile strength was reported in FSP-AM polymer composites, an increase of 6.4% is reported with SiO2/ABS and 72% with MWCNTs/PLA, 42.7% with Al2O3/PLA polymer composites. Surface topography of samples reveals that more focus is required in selection of the process parameters and by altering FSP strategies to improve the surface roughness of composites. Fractography, Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS), and Elemental mapping are carried out to understand the morphology of composites. The study is beneficial for automotive and aerospace industries where new materials and composites are required with high strength and improved resistance to wear and fatigue. newline newline