Title: Evaluation of mechanical properties of AA6061-TiB2/ZrB2 in-situ metal matrix composites fabricated by K2TiF6-KBF4-K2ZrF6 reaction system

Authors: A. Mahamani; A. Jayasree; K. Mounika; K. Reddi Prasad; N. Sakthivelan

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Venketeswara College of Engineering and Technology, Chittoor 517127, A.P., India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Venketeswara College of Engineering and Technology, Chittoor 517127, A.P., India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Venketeswara College of Engineering and Technology, Chittoor 517127, A.P., India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Venketeswara College of Engineering and Technology, Chittoor 517127, A.P., India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Venketeswara College of Engineering and Technology, Chittoor 517127, A.P., India

Abstract: Aluminium matrix composites are considered as a multi-property material system and this can be tailorable to suit the specific applications. In-situ synthesis is one of the methods to fabricate the composite with high inter-facial strength, increased wettability and cluster-free reinforcements. AA6061-TiB2/ZrB2 in-situ metal matrix composites are synthesised by K2TiF6-KBF4-K2ZrF6 reaction. Presence of the reinforcing phases is confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray analysis and scanning electron microscopic analysis. The objective of this paper is to study the influence of in-situ formed TiB2 and ZrB2 on mechanical properties and wear rate per percentage of the reinforcement. Experimental result shows that the inclusion of the reinforcement particles increases the mechanical properties and we note the significant improvement on wear rate per percentage of the reinforcement. Fracture surface investigation is carried out to identify the mode of failure of the composites due to the tensile load.

Keywords: in-situ composites; metal matrix composites; MMCs; mechanical properties; wear rate; fracture surface analysis; worn out surface analysis; aluminium matrix composites; interfacial strength; wettability; cluster-free reinforcement; titanium diboride; TiB2; zirconium diboride; ZrB2; failure mode; tensile load.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMP.2015.072915

International Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties, 2015 Vol.10 No.3/4, pp.185 - 200

Received: 27 Sep 2014
Accepted: 23 Dec 2014

Published online: 07 Nov 2015 *

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