Investigation of discontinuously reinforced aluminium metal matrix composite fabricated by two different micron ceramic reinforcements (ZrSiO4, B4C): comparative study

The focus of this research is on the fabrication of aluminium-B4C and aluminium-ZrSiO4 composites by vortex method as a liquid phase process of metal matrix composites. SEM observations show that reinforcement particles are dispersed homogeneously throughout the aluminium matrix. Density, mechanical properties such as hardness and tensile strength of Al base MMCs containing different volume fractions (5, 10 and 15 %) of micro-reinforcements are examined separately and compared with those of monolithic aluminium. Results show that mechanical properties of samples are noticeably higher than those of the monolithic aluminium. The optimum amount of reinforcement in this study was found to be 5 % and 5 10 % for ZrSiO4 and B4C, respectively. The highest ultimate tensile strength of composites is 187 MPa for aluminium-5%B4C in comparison to 223 for aluminium-5%ZrSiO4. Also, hardness data show a significant increase by adding reinforcements and reached a zenith of 75 HB for aluminium-ZrSiO4 and 79 HB for aluminium-B4C.