Influence of Heat Treatment and Reinforcements on Tensile Characteristics of Aluminium AA 5083/Silicon Carbide/Fly Ash Composites

Abstract

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.

Effect of Reinforcement on Tensile Characteristics in AA 5052 with ZrC and Fly Ash-Based Composites

“…However, yield strength decreases slightly at temperatures higher than 200 °C. An interstitial microcoring was formed in the matrix when fly ash was added to the mix, according to investigations by [30]. Using continual stirring as well as post-treatment thermal revelation, the authors of the current study were able to homogenize fly ash particles in the composites and speed up the inoculation process.…”

Experimental Investigation on Metal Matrix Nanocomposite: Aluminium Alloy 6061 and 7075 with SiC and Fly Ash

“…Zirconia, a reinforcing agent that is compatible with aluminium alloys, it is used as particles during the welding process in order to increase the performance of the recently discovered AA8006 alloy. In [17], authors focused on optimization of process meters; the number of samples that need to be characterized in order to optimize the process parameters will be reduced. The welded samples were included in the corrosion testing to confirm that the welding process did not introduce any outside materials that are corrosive and that no external corrosive elements were introduced.…”

Wear behaviour of aluminium alloy 5083/SiC/fly ash inoculants based functional composites – optimization studies

“…The outcomes of the experiment depicts a decrease in the wear with the increase in the wt% of reinforcements. This anti-wear mechanism is majorly attributed to the formation of the hard ceramic surface on the composite due to the formation of strong bonds between Al and SiO 2 and SiC compounds as observed by Santhosh et al [23] in their research work on the influence of Fly Ash inoculants and heat treatment on the characteristics of the Aluminium/SiCp/Fly Ash composites. Tables 6 and 7 presents response table for signal to noise ratio and means respectively.…”