Study of Mechanical and Tribological Properties of AZ91/SiC Composites

Abstract

AZ91 alloy is light material among magnesium family used in high-end applications such as aerospace and automobile industries. Reinforcement of these alloys with particulates
gained a lot of attention in the above applications. The current research focuses on the fabrication of AZ91/SiC composites and study of its mechanical and tribological properties. These composites are processed using squeeze type stir casting equipment by maintaining
optimum parameters like melt and mould temperature, stirring speed and time (i.e., 900rpm for 1 min) with various volume fractions of SiC particulates. Further, the effect of variation of SiC particles on mechanical properties is studied. From the results, an increase in tensile and compressive strengths are observed with an increase in volume fraction of SiC from 5% to 10%. Moreover, a pin on disc apparatus is used to study the wear behaviour of these composites with loads of 5 N to 20 N and speed of 60 rpm to 120 rpm.It has been observed that with an increase of volume fraction of SiC particles an increase in wear resistance and reduction in coefficient of friction. A cup and cone type fracture is observed from the
fractography results, which reveals the accumulation of reinforcement.