N. ASHOK, P. SHANMUGHASUNDARAM: EFFECT OF PARTICLES SIZE ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES ...
667–672
EFFECT OF PARTICLES SIZE ON THE MECHANICAL
PROPERTIES OF SiC-REINFORCED ALUMINIUM 8011
COMPOSITES
VPLIV VELIKOSTI DELCEV NA MEHANSKE LASTNOSTI S SiC
OJA^ANIH ALUMINIJEVIH 8011 KOMPOZITOV
Nagaraj Ashok, Palanisamy Shanmughasundaram
Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Karpagam University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Coimbatore 641021, India
sunramlec@rediffmail.com, ashok2488@rediffmail.com
Prejem rokopisa – received: 2016-08-11; sprejem za objavo – accepted for publication: 2016-11-14
doi:10.17222/mit.2016.252
The effects of the SiC particle size on the mechanical properties of aluminium 8011-SiC composites are reported. Three
different particle sizes of SiC (63, 76, 89) μm with two different mass fractions of 2 % and 4 % reinforced with aluminium 8011
were processed using the stir-casting method. The mechanical properties, like hardness, tensile strength, yield strength, ductility,
and toughness, of the composites and the unreinforced alloy were tested. It was observed that the hardness, tensile strength,
yield strength, ductility, and toughness increase with a decrease in the particle size of the SiC. The increase in weight fraction of
the SiC improves all the mechanical properties, except for the ductility and toughness of the composites. The results reveal that
the fine 63 μm (220 mesh) SiC particles introduced superior mechanical properties compared to the intermediate 76 μm (180
mesh) SiC particles and the coarse 89 μm (150 mesh) SiC.
Keywords: composites, particle size, stir casting method, weight fractions, mechanical properties
Delo poro~a o u~inkih velikosti delcev SiC na mehanske lastnosti aluminijevih 8011 kompozitov. Tri razli~ne velikosti delcev
SiC (63, 76, 89) μm z dvema razli~nima dele`ema te`e (2 in 4) %, oja~ane z aluminijem 8011, so bile obdelane z metodo
me{anja in litja. Testirane so bile mehanske lastnosti, kot so: trdota, natezna trdnost, meja te~enja, duktilnost in `ilavost
kompozitov in neoja~ane zlitine. Ugotovljeno je bilo, da se trdota, natezna trdnost, meja te~enja, duktilnost in `ilavost pove~ajo
z zmanj{anjem velikosti delcev SiC. Pove~anje dele`a masnega odstotka SiC izbolj{uje vse mehanske lastnosti razen razteznosti
in `ilavosti kompozitov. Rezultati ka`ejo, da drobni 63 μm (220 mesh) SiC delci poka`ejo nadpovpre~ne mehanske lastnosti v
primerjavi z vmesnim 76 μm (180 mesh) SiC delci in grobimi 89 μm (150 mesh) SiC.
Klju~ne besede: kompoziti, velikost delcev, metoda me{anja in litja, masni dele`i, mehanske lastnosti
1 INTRODUCTION
Aluminium metal-matrix composites are being used
as materials for automobile and aerospace applications.
Aluminium- and magnesium-based Metal-Matrix Com-
posites (MMCs) are an important class of high-potential
engineering materials.1 Aluminium alloy reinforced with
silicon carbide displays better mechanical and tribolo-
gical properties than the unreinforced alloy because of
their high strength-to-weight ratio. Silicon carbide is
often the preferred reinforcement in the production of
aluminium powder composites.2 Stir casting can be used
to fabricate the composites for a better homogenous dis-
tribution of reinforcement particles in the matrix.
P. Shanmughasundaram et al.3 investigated the effect of
the addition of fly ash on the mechanical and wear
behaviour of Aluminium–fly ash composites. The com-
posites were prepared with the varying weight percen-
tage of fly ash (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25) by a two-step stir-
casting method. They concluded that hardness, tensile
strength and compressive strength of the composites
increases up to the addition of 15 % of mass fractions of
fly ash, so it is the maximum reinforcement level to
obtain the desired property. S. G. Kulkarni et al.4 inves-
tigated the effect of fly ash and alumina on the mecha-
nical property of aluminium 356 alloy. They have
concluded that the addition of fly ash and alumina
increases the mechanical properties like hardness, tensile
strength and compressive strength of the composites.
Sudarshan et al.5 analysed the mechanical properties of
Al356-fly ash composites prepared by stir casting and
hot extrusion. They used narrow-size-range (53–106 μm)
and wide-size-range (0.5–400 μm) fly ash particles as
reinforcement. Their results revealed that small size
particles (53–106 μm) display higher mechanical pro-
perties than the larger size particles. P. Shanmughasun-
daram et al.6 applied ANOVA and Taguchi methods for
the selection of optimum level of parameters to obtain
the maximum mechanical properties of Al-fly ash
composites. They concluded that a modified two-step
stir-casting method enhances the uniform distribution of
fly ash particles in the aluminium matrix and improves
the mechanical properties. Baradeswaran et al.7 investi-
gated the mechanical and wear properties of Al
7075/Al2O3/graphite hybrid composites. The hybrid
composites were prepared with the reinforcement of
different weight percentages of alumina (2, 4, 6, and 8)
Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 51 (2017) 4, 667–672 667
MATERIALI IN TEHNOLOGIJE/MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY (1967–2017) – 50 LET/50 YEARS
UDK 620.1/.2:67.017:546.281'261 ISSN 1580-2949
Original scientific article/Izvirni znanstveni ~lanek MTAEC9, 51(4)667(2017)
and 5 % mass fractions of graphite. They concluded that
the mechanical properties increased due to the increase
in solid-solution strengthening. V. Ramnath et al.8
analysed the mechanical behaviour of aluminium-boron
carbide-alumina composites produced by the stir-casting
method. They concluded that the hardness and toughness
of the aluminium-boron carbide (3 % of mass fractions)
alumina (2 % of mass fractions) composites exhibit
superior properties than the other composites and
unreinforced alloy. Veereshkumar et al.9 have studied
Al6061-SiC and Al7075-Al2O3 composites produced by
liquid metallurgy technique. R. Harichandran et al.10
investigated the effect of micro and nanoparticle rein-
forcement of boron carbide on the aluminium alloy by
ultrasonic cavitation-assisted stir casting. T. Thirumalai
et al.11 analysed the aluminium matrix composites rein-
forced with boron carbide and graphite fabricated by the
stir-casting method. Different weight fractions of boron
carbide (3, 6, 9, and 12 % of mass fractions) and graphite
(3 % of mass fractions) were reinforced with LM25Al
alloy. Their results revealed that the hardness of the
composites was higher than that of the unreinforced
alloy. J. Hashim et al.12 analysed the low-cost stir-casting
method for the preparation of high-quality alumi-
nium-SiC composites. They found that by controlling the
various process parameters like position of the impeller,
size of the impeller, holding temperature, stirring speed
and addition of weight percentage of reinforcement a
wide range of mechanical properties were obtained. P.
Pugalenthi et al.13 conducted tests on the mechanical
properties of 7075 aluminium alloy reinforced with 2 %
of mass fractions of SiC and (3, 5, 7, 9) % of mass
fractions of alumina hybrid composites. Their result
revealed that the hardness and tensile strength of the
composites increase with an increase in the rein-
forcement of SiC and alumina. S. M. L. Nai et al.14
analysed the effect of stirring speed on the synthesis of
Al/SiC based functionally gradient materials. They
concluded that an increase of the stirring speed will lead
to a more homogeneous distribution of SiC particulates
alongside the deposition direction. N. Radhika et al.15
analysed the mechanical properties and tribological
behaviour of LM25/SiC/ Al2O3 composites with rein-
forcement of (5, 10, 15) % mass fractions of SiC and (5,
10, 15) % of mass fractions of alumina. It was found that
the composites with reinforcement of 30 % (15 % SiC
and 15% alumina) have higher hardness and tensile
strength than the unreinforced base alloy. K. Komai et
al.16 investigated the tensile and fatigue fracture beha-
viour of Al7075/SiC composites. They reported that the
mechanical properties of Al7075/SiC composites were
superior to the unreinforced alloy. T. J. A. Doel et al.17
analysed the tensile properties of Al-SiC composites.
The three different particle size of SiC (5, 13, 60) μm,
were used as reinforcement. They concluded that coarse
SiC particles fracture easily at low load than the fine and
intermediate SiC particles. C. Sun et al.18 investigated the
effect of SiC particle size on the mechanical properties
of aluminium-SiC composites. They concluded that the
tensile strength and yield strength of the composites
increases due to the addition of fine SiC particles. H. C.
Anilkumar et al.19 investigated the effect of fly ash part-
icle size (4–25, 45–50 and 75–100) μm and reinforce-
ment weight fractions (10, 15 and 20) % on the mecha-
nical properties of Al6061 composites reinforced with
fly ash. Their result reveals that the tensile strength,
compressive strength and hardness of the aluminium
alloy (Al 6061) composites increased with an increase in
the weight fraction of reinforced fly ash and decreased
with an increase in the particle size of the fly ash. M.
Kok20 analysed the effect of particle size and the weight
fraction of alumina on the mechanical properties of
Al2024-alumina composites. Three different particle
sizes (16, 32 and 66) μm and three different mass
fractions (10, 20 and 30) % of alumina were used as the
reinforcement to produce composites by the vortex
method, followed by applied pressure. The results reveal
that the reinforcement of fine alumina particles exhibits a
higher mechanical property than the intermediate and
coarse particles. M. Rahimian et al.21 investigated the
effect of particle size and weight fraction of alumina on
the mechanical properties of aluminium matrix compo-
site produced by powder metallurgy. Three different
weight fractions (5, 10, 15) and three different particle
sizes of alumina (3, 12, 48) μm were used as the
reinforcement. Their results show that the finer particle
(3 μm) has the highest yield strength, hardness, com-
pressive strength, elongation than the intermediate
(12 μm) and coarse particle (48 μm) reinforcement. M.
Kok et al.22 examined the effect of two different particle
sizes of alumina on the mechanical and wear behaviour
of the Al 2024 alloy. They revealed that the hardness and
tensile strength of the smaller particle reinforcement
were much higher than the larger particle size. S. Mah-
davi et al.23 analysed the hardness and wear behaviour of
Al6061 composites with the reinforcement of three
different SiC particles (19, 93, 146) μm. Their result
shows that the hardness increases with a decrease in the
particle size of the SiC reinforcement. From the liter-
ature it was observed that the mechanical properties of
the composites depend on the size and quantity of the
reinforcement particles. Earlier studies indicated that the
mechanical properties of the composites can be im-
proved with a decrease in the particle size and an in-
crease in the reinforcement content. Hence, a systematic
study has to be carried out to study the effect of particle
size and weight fraction of reinforcement on the
mechanical behaviour of the composites. In this present
work Al8011-SiC composites with the reinforcement of
three different particle sizes of SiC (63, 76 and 89) μm
and two different weight fractions (2 and 6) % of SiC
were fabricated using the stir-casting method and its
various mechanical properties like hardness, tensile
N. ASHOK, P. SHANMUGHASUNDARAM: EFFECT OF PARTICLES SIZE ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES ...
668 Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 51 (2017) 4, 667–672
MATERIALI IN TEHNOLOGIJE/MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY (1967–2017) – 50 LET/50 YEARS
strength, yield strength, ductility and toughness were
tested.
2 EXPERIMENTAL PART
2.1 Stir-casting method
In this research work, Al 8011-SiC composites were
fabricated with three different particle sizes 89 μm
(coarse), 76 μm (intermediate) and 63 μm (fine) and two
different weight fractions (2 and 6) % of SiC were used
as reinforcement by stir the casting method. The compo-
sition of Al 8011 alloy is presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Composition of Al alloy 8011 alloy
Element In mass frac-tions, (w/%)
Al 97.14
Si 0.53
Fe 0.99
Cu 0.27
Mn 0.21
Mg 0.25
Cr 0.049
Zn 0.19
Ti 0.028
Pb 0.10
Ca 0.008
Ni 0.045
Stir-casting setup that was used to fabricate the com-
posites is shown in Figure 1.
To remove the moisture content from the SiC parti-
cles, they were preheated for 60 min in a separate muffle
furnace. Aluminium 8011 was added to the graphite cru-
cible and the furnace temperature was maintained at
780 °C, then the Al scraps were melted completely. The
melt temperature was reduced to 720 °C to obtain the
semi-solid state, then the preheated SiC particles and
1.5 % of mass fractions of Mg was added to the molten
slurry. Stirring was done for 5 min. Mg were added to
the mixture to increase the wettability between the Al
matrix and SiC particles. The stirring speed was main-
tained at 300 min–1 throughout the process. Then, finally
again the temperature was raised to the liquid state and
poured into the mould for solidification.
3 MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
3.1 Hardness test
The hardness tests of Al8011-SiC composites and
unreinforced alloy were carried out using Rockwell hard-
ness machine MSM model with ASTM E18:2014 stan-
dard with 1/16” inch ball indenter with a load of 980 N.
The loading time for the test period was 15 s. The
average of three readings was taken to eliminate the error
at room temperature. The examined hardness test sam-
ples of Al8011 and Al 8011-SiC composites are shown
in Figure 2.
3.2 Tensile test
Tensile tests were carried out using UTM testing ma-
chine M30 model as per ASTM E8:2015 standard for the
Al8011 and Al8011-SiC composites. Three samples
were taken and tested and the average of three test read-
ings was taken and noted. The examined tensile test sam-
ples of Al8011 and Al 8011-SiC composites are shown
in Figure 3.
3.3 Impact test
The toughness test was carried out by using charpy
impact test machine (AIT-300-EN). The energy required
to break the specimen was measured in terms of Joules.
The final energy measured was the difference between
the total energy supplied to break the specimen to the en-
N. ASHOK, P. SHANMUGHASUNDARAM: EFFECT OF PARTICLES SIZE ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES ...
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MATERIALI IN TEHNOLOGIJE/MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY (1967–2017) – 50 LET/50 YEARS
Figure 1: Stir casting setup3
Figure 2: Examined hardness test samples of Al8011 and Al
8011-SiC composites
ergy available after the specimen fracture. The test
method used was ISO-148-1:2009. The standard speci-
men size for this impact test method was 10 mm × 10
mm × 55 mm. Three specimens were tested and the aver-
age of three readings was noted. Examined Charpy im-
pact test samples of Al8011 and Al 8011-SiC composites
are shown in Figure 4.
Mechanical properties of pure Al and Al8011-SiC
Composites are presented in Table 2.
Table 2: Mechanical Properties of Al8011-SiC Composites
Sic
(w/%)
Hardness
(RHB)
Yield
strength
(MPa
Tensile
strength
(MPa)
Elonga-
tion %
Tough-
ness (J)
0 90 46 67 7 10
2 %
(89 ìm) 92 54 73 7.5 15
2 %
(76 ìm) 94 58 78 7.8 16
2 %
(63 ìm) 96 63 84 8.4 17
6 %
(89 ìm) 98 76 98 7.2 12
6 %
(76 ìm) 102 81 105 7.4 13
6 %
(63 ìm) 105 87 111 7.7 14
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
From Figure 5 it can be observed that as the particle
size decreases the hardness of the composite increases
for 2 % and 6 % of mass fractions reinforcement of SiC.
The hardness of Al8011-SiC-63 μm (220 mesh) for 6 %
of mass fraction was observed to be 105 HRB, which
was 16 % more than the unreinforced alloy (90 HRB).
Hard SiC particles act as a barrier to the applied load.
Hardness of the Al8011-SiC composites was greater than
the unreinforced alloy because of the hard nature of the
SiC particles. The addition of hard ceramic particles in-
creased the bulk hardness of the aluminium alloy. Fine
particle size 63 μm (220 mesh) reinforcement of SiC ex-
hibit superior hardness than the intermediate SiC-76 μm
(180 mesh) and coarse SiC-89 μm (150 mesh). This re-
sult was similar to the statement concluded by M. Kok.20
M. Kok reported that the hardness of the composites in-
creased with decreasing size and increasing weight frac-
tion of the reinforcement particles. The increase in hard-
ness was due to the presence of a larger interfacial area
N. ASHOK, P. SHANMUGHASUNDARAM: EFFECT OF PARTICLES SIZE ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES ...
670 Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 51 (2017) 4, 667–672
MATERIALI IN TEHNOLOGIJE/MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY (1967–2017) – 50 LET/50 YEARS
Figure 4: Examined Charpy impact test samples of Al8011 and Al
8011-SiC composites
Figure 3: Examined tensile test samples of Al8011 and Al 8011-SiC
composites
Figure 5: Effect of mesh size of SiC on the hardness of Al8011-SiC
composites
Figure 6: Effect of mesh size of SiC on the yield strength of
Al8011-SiC composites
between the soft and hard phases. Decreasing the alu-
mina particle size increases the hardness. A similar ob-
servation was made by M. Rahimian.21
From Figure 6 it is observed that yield strength in-
creases as the weight fraction of SiC increases. The yield
strength of Al8011-6 % of mass fractions of SiC-63 μm
(220 mesh) was observed to be 87 MPa which was 89 %
higher than the unreinforced alloy. The yield strength
also increases with the decrease in particle size of SiC. It
was noted that the value of yield strength was 54 MPa
for Al8011-2 % of mass fractions of SiC-89 μm (150
mesh), 58 MPa for Al8011-2 % of mass fractions of
SiC-76 μm (180 mesh) and 63 MPa for Al8011-2 % of
mass fractions of SiC-63 μm (220 mesh), that was 16 %
increase when compared to the 150 mesh size.
From Figure 7 it is clear that the tensile strength of
the composites was higher than the pure Aluminium
8011. The tensile strength of unreinforced Al8011 was
67 MPa and the value increased to 84 MPa for Al8011-2 %
of mass fractions of SiC-63 μm (220 mesh). An increase
of 25 % in tensile strength was observed. Similarly 111
MPa for Al 8011-6 % of mass fractions of SiC-63 μm
(220 mesh), increase of 65 % was observed when com-
pared to the unreinforced alloy.
From Figure 8 it is clear that the elongation of the
composites increases with the decrease in the particle
size. The elongation tends to decrease when the amount
of reinforcement increases. The Al 8011-2 % of mass
fractions of SiC has a higher elongation than the
Al8011-6 % of mass fractions of SiC composites. The
elongation decreases to 7.7 % from 8.4 % drop of 9 %
was observed. The increase in tensile strength and yield
strength was due to the increase in dislocation density
caused by the reinforcement of the hard SiC particles. As
smaller reinforcement particle size reduces the distance
between the reinforcement particles, the movement of
dislocations tends to decrease, leading to a higher
strength of the composites. The grain boundary acts as a
barrier to the movement of dislocations caused by the
plastic deformation. Therefore, at a higher mess size,
high grain boundaries are formed, which act as a barrier
against the movement of the dislocation.
From Figure 9 it is observed that the highest tough-
ness of 17 J was observed for Al8011-2 % SiC-63 μm
(220 mesh). The value was 16 J for Al8011-2 % of mass
fractions of SiC-76 μm (180 mesh) and 15 J for
Al8011-2 % of mass fractions of SiC-89 μm (150 mesh).
But the toughness decreases for the reinforcement of 6 %
of mass fractions of SiC particles.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Al 8011-SiC composites were produced successfully
by the stir-casting method and a homogenous distribu-
tion of SiC particles in the Al8011 matrix was obtained.
From the tests conducted the following conclusions can
be drawn:
1. Hardness increased with the decrease in SiC particle
size. The highest hardness (105 HRB) was obtained
for 6 % of mass fractions of SiC particle reinforced
composites with 63 μm particle size.
2. The coarse particle size of SiC has a lesser yield
strength and tensile strength. The highest amount of
N. ASHOK, P. SHANMUGHASUNDARAM: EFFECT OF PARTICLES SIZE ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES ...
Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 51 (2017) 4, 667–672 671
MATERIALI IN TEHNOLOGIJE/MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY (1967–2017) – 50 LET/50 YEARS
Figure 9: Effect of mesh size of SiC on the toughness of Al8011-SiC
composites
Figure 8: Effect of mesh size of SiC on the elongation of Al8011-SiC
composites
Figure 7: Effect of mesh size of SiC on the tensile strength of
Al8011-SiC composites
yield strength and tensile strength were 87 MPa, 111
MPa for the sample containing 6 % of mass fractions
of SiC with 63 μm particle size.
3. Elongation decreased as the weight fraction of SiC
increases. The 6 % of mass fractions of SiC particle
reinforced composite with 63 μm SiC particles has
the elongation of 7.7 % which was 8 % less than the
2 % of mass fractions of SiC particle-63 μm (220
mesh).
4. Toughness increased with the decrease in particle
size for both the 2 % and 6 % mass fractions of SiC
particle reinforced composites. The highest amount
of toughness was 17 J for the sample containing 2 %
of mass fractions of SiC with 63μm SiC particles.
Hardness, yield strength, and tensile strength increase
with the increase in weight fraction of SiC, while the
toughness and ductility decrease. Fine reinforcement of
SiC-63 μm (220 mesh) with Al 8011 exhibit superior
mechanical properties than the coarse SiC-89 μm (150
mesh) and intermediate SiC-76 μm (180 mesh) particles.
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N. ASHOK, P. SHANMUGHASUNDARAM: EFFECT OF PARTICLES SIZE ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES ...
672 Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 51 (2017) 4, 667–672
MATERIALI IN TEHNOLOGIJE/MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY (1967–2017) – 50 LET/50 YEARS