Mechanical and Wear Behavior of Aluminium Metal Matrix Composites Reinforced Ceramics Materials for Light Structures

Aluminium Alloy based Metal Matrix Composites (AAMMCs) has widely used in defense, aircraft and automobile applications because of their enhanced engineering properties with light weight metals. Nano sized silicon nitride (80 μm) is used as a reinforcement in this study, whereas aluminium alloy 8011 is selected as the matrix material. Using the stir casting method, metal matrix composites made of aluminium alloy 8011 with varying weight percentages of Si3N4 (0, 4, 8, 12, and 16) are created. The stir casted AL 8011/Si3N4 composites further heated under T6 condition. The AL 8011/Si3N4 – T6 composites are further subjected to Energy Dispersive X ray Analysis (EDAX) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to identify by the presence of elements and study the microstructure characterization, respectively. The density, microhardness and wear test are conducted by employing Archimedes principle, Vickers hardness tested and pin on disc equipment, respectively. The wear test is done at different sliding distances like (500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 m), applied load like (10, 20, 30 and 40 N) and kept sliding at a speed of 1 m/s. The increasing weight percentage of silicon nitride expands the increasing of density and Vickers hardness up to 12 wt % of silicon nitride and decreasing by 16 wt % addition. The wear resistances of AL 8011/12 wt % Si3N4 –T6 composite exhibits higher wear resistance than other Al8011 based composites.