Authors : Shantanu Debnath, Vikash Swami and Ram Naresh Rai
Abstract: In the present investigation, silicon carbide reinforced Al-Cu alloy based metal matrix composite was fabricated by the Directionally Solidified (DS) stir casting technique and the effect of this novel technique on composite property was compared with conventional method. In this study, studied the comparison between conventional cast and DS developed specimen and also investigate the influence of Cu and ceramic particles in the Al-matrix. The DS developed samples were found porosity and shrinkage defect free due to very good interface bonding of uniformly dispersed sub-micron size SiC particles with the Al-Cu matrix. X-ray diffraction was also performed to know the presence of the inter metallic phases of reinforced material. The microstructures of the MMC revealed the homogeneous dispersion of SiC particles throughout the aluminium matrix having clear and good interfacial bonding is obtained. The hardness and tensile strength value of the composite show the enhancement of the synthesized composite compared to conventionally develop composite. This practical oriented research investigation and test results of the tensile and hardness of Al-Cu-SiCp MMC will provide useful trace for the industry to use this newly developed composite as per their requirement.
Shantanu Debnath, Vikash Swami and Ram Naresh Rai, 2018. Microstructures and Mechanical Properties Studies of the Directional Solidified Developed Ex-Situ Al-4.5% Cu-SiCp Metal-Matrix Composites. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 13: 3273-3277.