The effect of reinforcements and thermal exposure on the tensile properties of aluminium AA 5083–silicon carbide (SiC)–fly ash composites were studied in the present work. The specimens were fabricated with varying wt.% of fly ash and silicon carbide and subjected to T6 thermal cycle conditions to enhance the properties through “precipitation hardening”. The analyses of the microstructure and the elemental distribution were carried out using scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The composite specimens thus subjected to thermal treatment exhibit uniform distribution of the reinforcements, and the energy dispersive spectrum exhibit the presence of Al, Si, Mg, O elements, along with the traces of few other elements. The effects of reinforcements and heat treatment on the tensile properties were investigated through a set of scientifically designed experimental trials. From the investigations, it is observed that the tensile and yield strength increases up to 160 °C, beyond which there is a slight reduction in the tensile and yield strength with an increase in temperature (i.e., 200 °C). Additionally, the % elongation of the composites decreases substantially with the inclusion of the reinforcements and thermal exposure, leading to an increase in stiffness and elastic modulus of the specimens. The improvement in the strength and elastic modulus of the composites is attributed to a number of factors, i.e., the diffusion mechanism, composition of the reinforcements, heat treatment temperatures, and grain refinement. Further, the optimisation studies and ANN modelling validated the experimental outcomes and provided the training models for the test data with the correlation coefficients for interpolating the results for different sets of parameters, thereby facilitating the fabrication of hybrid composite components for various automotive and aerospace applications.
Fatigue is a major issue concerning the use of aluminium composites in structural applications. Fatigue leads to weakening of material majorly due to the strain bands formed in the material when it is subjected to repeated loading; the damage that occurs due to fatigue is a progressive and localized one. The fatigue may occur at a stress limit much lesser than the ultimate stress limit of the composite specimen. Henceforth in the current work, fatigue behaviour of silicon carbide and fly ash dispersion strengthened high performance hybrid Al 5083 metal matrix composites are evaluated. The main purpose of fatigue characterisation is to distinctly evaluate the life cycle of components that are fabricated from metal matrix composites and eventually develop a framework model for the significant study of fatigue strength of the structure with persistent striations all along the interstitials of aluminiumsilicon carbide-fly ash interfaces. Fatigue is a stochastic process rather than a deterministic one that gives a considerable scatter, even among samples of similar composition with the tests carried out in some of the critically controlled environments. Hence there is a need for statistical validation of the results to authenticate the data collected. Thus in the current work, analysis of variance is carried out to establish the authenticity of the results and validate them. The results and plots are presented with suitable rationale and inferences.
Welding process in vehicle structures has gained importance, especially for better strength and mechanical properties. Hence, there is vast research going on in the domain of newer welding techniques. Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is one of them. FSW is used in this research to join two different grades of aluminium alloys by varying the process parameters. The process parameters are optimized based on the Design of Experiments (DoE) and the Taguchi techniques. From the experimental findings for different process parameters, the optimized set of conditions involving the normal, transverse forces and the torque are determined. Further, the process methodology is validated.
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