Investigation of Effect of Stirring Speed on Mechanical and Corrosive Properties of AMMC

Abstract

Abstract-Automobiles, spacecraft and ship building uses the materials which are heavy and get corroded because of being used in different environmental conditions. Due to this the fuel consumption is high and life of the parts reduces. To get high fuel efficiency, one of the best way is to reduce the weight of the material. But by reducing the weight of the parts, the strength of the parts will reduce. To overcome this problem, new type of materials are evolved that are composite materials. A composite material is a mixture of two or more materials such as reinforcements of ceramics (in the form of particles, fibres etc.) embedded in a base metal matrix. Particulate reinforced aluminium alloy composites exhibits better mechanical properties than the unreinforced materials.Stir casting is the method used for large scale production of Aluminium Metal Matrix Composite (AMMC) because of its simplicity and low cost. The major problem in the fabrication of metal matrix composite materials is the distribution of reinforcement in the metal matrix. The distribution of the reinforcement particle in the base metal matrix is effected by the stirring speed of the stirrer during the fabrication of Aluminium Metal Matrix Composite (AMMC). Therefore, the research on the effect of stirring speed on the mechanical, corrosive and wear properties for the fabrication of AMMC in the stir casting was done. As the composite materials have to work in different environments, their corrosion properties also have equal importance. Fabrication of Metal MatrixComposite of 6351Al with the reinforcing materials Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) at eight different stirring speeds (i.e., 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000 rpm) with a percentage of reinforcement by weight 3%. Then their mechanical, corrosive and wear properties were compared with standard Aluminium alloy 6351. The distribution of the reinforcement (Al2O3) in the metal matrix (6351Al) was studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Mechanical properties such as density, hardness, tensile strength, impact strength etc. and corrosive rate were determined. Wear analysis is done for composite samples fabricated at different stirring speeds. The investigation on the stir casting process reveals the optimal stirring speed for fabrication of AMMC.