Characterization of Stir Cast Aluminium Silicon Carbide Metal Matrix Composite

Aluminium silicon carbide metal matrix composites (Al-SiC MMC) are gaining wider acceptance in various fields like aerospace, aircrafts, automobile, substrate in electronics, turbine blades, etc, due to their high strength, stiffness, high corrosion and wear resistance, good thermal and electrical properties and good damping capability. In this work Al-SiC MMCs are fabricated by mixing molten aluminium with Silicon carbide by the aid of mechanical stirring, called stir casting method. Also in this work, the stir casting process parameters are optimized within the range to obtain good mechanical characteristics and uniform mixing of reinforcement, which is a major concern in stir casting. The processing parameters that were investigated include stirrer speed, volume fraction of reinforcement, number of blades on stirrer and diameter ratio. Microstructure observed through optical microscope was correlated to clustering tendency of reinforcement particles. The results of mechanical characterization study and microstructure study show that the stirrer speed, volume fraction of reinforcement, diameter ratio, and number of blades on stirrer appears to have significant effect on mechanical properties and clustering tendency of reinforcement particles. (c) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.