Title: On the fatigue characteristics of electro-discharge machined alumina particulate reinforced aluminium matrix composites

Authors: P.K. Brahmankar, N. Ramakrishnan

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University, Lonere 402 103, Raigad, Maharashtra, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400 076, India

Abstract: This paper discusses an experimental investigation to examine the effect of Electro-Discharge Machining (EDM) on the high cycle fatigue characteristics of rough as well as smooth electro-discharge machined specimens of 6061/Al2O3 composites with 10 and 22% of volume fraction of alumina (Al2O3) particulate reinforcement. The unreinforced alloy (6061) was also included as a basis of comparison. While the pulse energy and volume fraction of ceramic were found to exert a significant effect on the fatigue characteristics, a model correlating the effect of these variables on the fatigue life was found to have excellent fit. It was observed that the fatigue performance of the composites with a high volume fraction and machined at high pulse energy was always inferior to that of the unreinforced alloy.

Keywords: ceramic particulates; electro-discharge machining; EDM; fatigue life; high cycle fatigue; metal matrix composites; volume fraction; aluminium alloys; non-traditional machining; advanced machining; electrical discharge machining.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2005.006837

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2005 Vol.7 No.2/3/4, pp.342 - 351

Published online: 17 Apr 2005 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article