Mechanical properties and fractography of SiC and fly ash particulates reinforced Al2024 alloy aerospace metal composites

An effort has been made to study the effect of 15-micron sized fly ash and 70 microns sized SiC particles reinforced Al2024 alloy composites in the present work. By squeeze casting method the hybrid composites with constant 3 wt.% of fly ash and 5 and 7 varying wt. percentages of SiC particulates were fabricated. The hybrid composites were analyzed for Microstructure hardness and UTS. Using SEM microstructure characteristics were carried out to find the distribution of the reinforcements in the base matrix. The hardness and UTS were enhanced with the increase in percentage of reinforcements. It is found to be slight decrease in the impact strength of hybrid composites as compared to the base alloy. Various types of fracture mechanisms were analyzed in the Al2024 alloy with SiC and fly ash particulates reinforced composites using SEM.