Mechanical Properties of 7075 Aluminium Matrix Composites Reinforced by Nanometric Silicon Carbide Particulates

Abstract

Aluminum Matrix composites (AMCs) are known as light weight and high-strength materials with their potential application in areas such as aerospace, automobile, defence, engineering and other industries. AMCs have the advantage to significantly reduce the overall weight of the vehicles and aircraft while maintaining their structural strength. Reinforcement of micron or nano-sized range particles with aluminium matrix yields improved mechanical and physical properties in composite materials. The strength of Al matrix composites will be improved about 20% with decreasing reinforcement particle size from micrometric scale to nanometric scale. In this study, Al7075 alloy and nano SiC composites have been fabricated by Electromagnetic stir casting process combined with mechanical stirring. Different weight % of nano SiC particles (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 wt%) were used for synthesis of composites. Certain test methods scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD) are used to examine the microstructure along with the measurement of impact strength of the nano composite. SEM microstructure shows SiC particles are fairly infused into the matrix alloy with agglomeration and porosity at some places. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis acknowledged that no unknown crystalline elements are present in the composites while mixing reinforcement with Al alloy matrix. The results impact strength shows that impact strength decreases with respect to the base metal because of brittle nature of reinforcement.