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Mechanical Behavior and Metallographic Characterization of Microwave Sintered Al/SiC Composite Materials – an Experimental Approach

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Abstract

It is traditionally thought to be challenging to incorporate tougher ceramic particles into a softer aluminium matrix. Powder metallurgy has emerged as a significant fabrication technology in this context. Silicon carbide (SiC) is reinforced to aluminium with varying reinforcement, i.e., 5, 10, and 15 %. The samples were sintered in a microwave sintering furnace at 550 °C ± 5 °C. The scanning electron microscope and the field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) were used to inspect the microstructure (structure/shape, dislocations, and grain distribution) of prepared powders and sintered composites. Water displacement methods were used to assess the density and porosity of prepared composites. X-ray diffraction (XRD) is used to assess the existence of intermetallic compounds (if any) and contaminations. Mechanical investigations were performed on aluminium and its composites, as well as the effect of particle size on the mechanical properties of Al/15 %SiC were studied and presented. Density and porosity found to incline with the increase in SiC content. Properties such as hardness, ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and yield strength (YS) of the reinforced composites (5, 10, and 15 %) were significantly improved, whereas elongation rapidly declined compared to pure aluminium. Also, the UTS and YS increases with the decrease in reinforcement particle size. The dominant mechanisms are ascertained to be dislocation density, refined grain size, and porosity.

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Funding

The authors wish to thank the Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, India for financial support (EEQ/2017/000276 dated 16th March 2018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, GITAM (Deemed to be University), 530045, Visakhapatnam, India

    Shoba Chintada & Siva Prasad Dora

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Vasavi Engineering College, Tadepalligudem, A.P, India

    Dorathi Kare

Authors
  1. Shoba Chintada
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  2. Siva Prasad Dora
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  3. Dorathi Kare
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Contributions

Chintada Shoba: conceptualization, methodology, writing, D. Siva Prasad: Editing, Supervisor, Dorathi Kare: Experimentation and characterization.

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Correspondence to Shoba Chintada.

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Chintada, S., Dora, S.P. & Kare, D. Mechanical Behavior and Metallographic Characterization of Microwave Sintered Al/SiC Composite Materials – an Experimental Approach. Silicon 14, 7341–7352 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-021-01409-5

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