Date of Publication :19th April 2017

Abstract: Aluminium Matrix Composites (AMCS) are lightweight, high-strength materials with potential applications in areas such as automobiles, aerospace, defense, engineering and other industries. Stir casting route is the most promising one for synthesizing discontinuous reinforcement aluminum matrix composites because of its relative simplicity and easy adaptability with all shape casting process used in the metal casting industry. The objective of developing aluminum alloy based metal matrix hybrid composites using stir casting is to study their mechanical properties. Hybridization of metal matrix composites is the introduction of more than one type/kind, size and shape of reinforcement during processing of composites. The advantages of one type of reinforcement could complement with what is lacking in the other. As a consequence, a balance in cost and performance can be achieved through proper material design. The liquid metallurgy route (stir casting technique) was successfully adopted in the preparation of aluminum alloy, magnesium (3 wt%) is added to achieve good wettability and hybrid composites containing 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 wt% of SiC particles and constant 3 wt% of rice husk ash. There is an effort to understand the microstructure study of the cast hybrid composites including particle distribution and defects like porosity in order to correlate with the observed mechanical properties measured in terms of hardness and tensile properties.

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