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Comparative Evaluation of Ex Situ and In Situ Method of Fabricating Aluminum/TiB2 Composites

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Abstract

In the present work, Al–TiB2 composites were casted using in situ and ex situ method of fabrication. The effect of processing temperature on the formation of titanium diboride particles was studied, and comparative evaluation of in situ and ex situ method was carried out. Characterization of composites was carried out to study the effect of various process parameters on the mechanical properties. The microstructure of in situ composites shows a homogeneous distribution of titanium diboride particles without agglomeration as compared to ex situ composites. SEM micrographs of in situ composites show distinct and reaction-free boundaries between reinforcement and matrix material as compared to the ex situ composites. In addition, average UTS of in situ AlSi5Cu3/3%TiB2 composite and ex situ AlSi5Cu3/3%TiB2 composite increased by 80.13% and 39.72% as compared to pure AlSi5Cu3, respectively. The average hardness of in situ AlSi5Cu3/3%TiB2 composite and ex situ AlSi5Cu3/3%TiB2 composite casted in metal mold increased by 45% and 31.66%, respectively, as compared to pure AlSi5Cu3.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi, sponsored SMART Foundry Project (DST/TSG/AMT/2015/332 dated 17/08/2016).

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chandubhai S. Patel Institute of Technology, Charotar University of Science and Technology (CHARUSAT), Changa, Anand, Gujarat, India

    V. S. Ayar & M. P. Sutaria

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The original online version of this article was revised: AlSi5Cu3 was corrected to AlSi5Cu3 throughout the text.

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Ayar, V.S., Sutaria, M.P. Comparative Evaluation of Ex Situ and In Situ Method of Fabricating Aluminum/TiB2 Composites. Inter Metalcast 15, 1047–1056 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40962-020-00539-7

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