PREPARATION AND EVALUATION OF MECHANICAL

PROPERTIES OF Al-6061 REINFORCED WITH GRAPHITE

and FLY ASH OF SEED HUSK (Honge) PARTICULATE
METAL MATRIX COMPOSITE
Charles Edrard 1, N.Kapilan2,MervinA. Herbert3
1,2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nagarjuna College of Engineering & Technology, Bangalore-
562110,Karnataka,India.
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka Surathkal-575 025, India.
1
[email protected],,[email protected],[email protected]

Key Words: Al-6061 MMC’s, Graphite Particulates, Fly- to use light weight materials & has increased because of
Ash of Seed Husk, Stir-Casting, Mechanical Properties. environmental issues. Examples of components that have
been manufactured using metal matrix composites include
Abstract pistons for diesel engines and connecting rods [2]. These
materials have also been shown to possess great potential for
applications in the brake disks for railway brake equipment
The aim of this work is to study the mechanical properties of [3]. Aluminium-based Metal Matrix
Aluminium alloy Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) as they
are gaining wide spread acceptance for automobile, Composites (MMCs) have received increasing attention in
industrial, and aerospace applications because of their low recent decades as engineering materials. The introduction of
density, high strength and good structural rigidity. In the a ceramic material into a metal matrix to produces a
present work an attempt has been made to synthesize Al- composite material that results in an attractive combination
6061 with Graphite and fly ash of seed husk (Honge seeds) of physical and mechanical properties which cannot be
particulate metal matrix composites by using stir casting obtained with monolithic alloys [4]. The various
technique. The addition level of reinforcement is being reinforcements that have been tried out to develop
varied from 0,4,6,8wt%. Preheated particle reinforcements aluminium matrix composites(AMCs) such as graphite,
are added to Al 6061 Alloy to improve wettability and silicon carbide, titanium carbide, tungsten, boron, Al203, fly-
distribution. Microstructural analysis was carried out for the ash, Zr, TiB2, etc. Addition of hard reinforcements such as
above prepared composites by taking specimens from central silicon carbide, alumina, and titanium carbide improves
portion of the casting to ensure homogeneous distribution of hardness, strength and wear resistance of the composites [1,
particles. Micro-hardness, tensile properties of the 2-4]. Aluminium alloys are still the subjects of intense
composites were studied as per the ASTM (E8M) standards. studies, as their low density gives additional advantages in
Microstructural characterization revealed fairly uniform several applications. These alloys have started to replace cast
distribution in the matrix. The Micro-Vickers hardness of the iron and bronze, to manufacture wear resistant parts.
composite was found to decrease with increase in filler Previous studies have shown that mechanical properties of
content in the composite. The density of both theoretically Al-matrix composites would be enhanced with particulate
and experimentally of FA is higher then Gr. The tensile reinforcement [5]. The particulate reinforced MMCs is
strength of the composites was found to increase confirming mainly used due to easy availability of particles and
the dispersed graphite and fly-ash in Al-6061 alloy economic processing technique adopted for producing the
contributed in enhancing the tensile strength and wear particulate reinforced MMCs. Al alloy has been commonly
resistance too of the composites. used as a base metal for MMCs reinforced with a variety of
fibres, particles and whiskers [6-7]. Amongst different kinds
1 Introduction of the recently developed composites, particle-reinforced
metal matrix composites and in particular aluminium base
Metal matrix composites (MMCs) are increasingly becoming materials have already emerged as candidates for industrial
an attractive materials in advanced aerospace applications applications .
because of their properties, can be tailored through the
addition of selected reinforcements [1]. Metal matrix Investigation of mechanical behavior of aluminum alloys
composites have a market potential for various applications, reinforced by micro hard particles such as Graphite, fly ash
particularly in the automotive industry, where the pressure is is an interesting area of research. Therefore, the aim of this
study is to investigate the effects of different factors such as: effective degassing using solid hexachloroethane (C2Cl6).
(i) weight percentage of the particles (ii) Fabrication process Before introducing reinforcement particles into the melt they
on the microstructure, mechanical properties of the were preheated to a temperature of 2500C. The extent of
composites. Mechanical properties were evaluated as per incorporation of Graphite particles in the matrix alloy was
ASTM standards using computerized universal testing achieved in steps of 3. i.e Total amount of reinforcement
machine,pin on disk test. required was calculated and is being introduced into melt 3
times rather than introducing all at once. At every stage of
2 Experimental Details before and after introduction of reinforcement particles,
mechanical stirring of the molten alloy for a period of 10 min
was achieved by using Zirconia-coated steel impeller. The
The following section highlights the materials used, their stirrer was immersed into the melt, located approximately to
properties, method of composite preparation and evaluation a depth of 2/3rd height of the molten metal from the bottom
of microstructural and mechanical properties. and run at a speed of 200 rpm. A pouring temperature of
750°C was adopted and the molten composite was poured
Materials Used into cast iron mould. The extent of incorporation of graphite
in the matrix alloy was varied from 0,4,6& 8 wt%. Thus
The matrix material for present study is Al-6061. Table.1 composites containing particles were obtained in the form of
gives the chemical composition of cylinders of diameter 12.5mm and length 125mm.
6061Al. The reinforcing material selected was Graphite and
Fly Ash of particle size 125 μm&125-150 μm. Table.2 gives
the properties of Matrix and Reinforcing materials used in
4 Testing of Composites
the present study.
To study the microstructure of the specimens the central
portion of the casting was cut by an automatic cutter device.
The specimen surfaces were prepared by grinding through
Table.1. Shows the Chemical Composition of Al 6061
200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 grit papers and then by
Si Fe Cu Mn Ni Pb
polishing with 3 m diamond paste and then etched by
0.43 0.7 0.24 0.139 1.05 0.24 Keller’s reagent to obtain better contrast. Microscopic
Zn Ti Sn Mg Cr Al examination of the composites was carried out by optical
Balance microscopy. To investigate the mechanical behavior of the
0.25 0.15 0.001 0.802 0.25
composites the tensile tests was carried out using
computerized uni-axial tensile testing machine as per ASTM
Table.2. Shows the Properties of Matrix and Reinforcing standards. For tensile results, test was repeated three times to
Materials Used in the Study. obtain a precise average value, which gave increased tensile
Material/ Density Hard- Strength(Tensi Elastic strength, and the microstructural results shows good
le/Compression dispersions of reinforcement.
Properties gm/cc -ness ) Modulu
s(GPa)
(HB50 (MPa) 5 Results and Discussions
0)
Density
Matrix Al 2.7 30 115(T) 70-80 From the below table presents the comparison of theoretical
6061 density obtained by rule of mixture and measured density
values by experiment for both the composites studied, further
Reinforcem 2.25 1.7moh 89.63(C) 8-15
the graph shows the experimental density values of the both
ent Gr. s scale
Particle the composites containing various filler percentages. From
the table it can be concluded that the experimental and the
theoretical density values are in line with each other and
confirms the suitability of the liquid metallurgy techniques
for the successful composite preparation.
3 Preparation of Composites
The Aluminium 6061 alloy is used in this experiment as the
matrix and graphite of 125 μm as reinforcement. The liquid
metallurgy route has been adopted to prepare the cast of
composites Al-6061+Gr. Preheated Graphite and Fly Ash
powder of laboratory grade purity of particle size 125 μm
was introduced into the vortex of the molten alloy after
Table 3. Comparison of theoretical and experimental
densities of the Al6061-FA and
composites
Al6061-Graphite Al6061-FA
2.8
2.75

Density
Material Density (g/cc) Weight % Reinforcement 2.7 Theoretic
al
0 4 6 8 2.65
Al6061- Theoretical 2.70 2.72 2.73 2.75 Experime
2.6 ntal
FA Density
Experimental 2.65 2.67 2.68 2.74 0 4 6 8
Density
Wt%. of Reinforcement
Theoretical 2.70 2.67 2.66 2.64
Al6061-
Density
Graphite
Experimental 2.65 2.58 2.53 2.58
Density FA
From Figure, it can be observed that the densities of
2.76
composites are higher than that of their base matrix, further
2.74
the density increases with increased percentage of filler
content in the composites [7, 8]. From the figure it can be 2.72
Density
concluded that Al6061-flyash composites exhibits higher 2.7
density than that of the Al6061-Graphite and can reasoned 2.68
for the higher density values of flyash 2.66 Theoretical
2.64
Experimental
2.62
2.6
Al6061-Gr 0 4 6 8
2.8 Wt.% of Reinforcement
2.7
Density

2.6 Theoretica
l
2.5
2.4 Experimen
Gr
0 4 6 8 tal 2.75
2.7
Wt.% of Reinforcement 2.65
Density

2.6
2.55
Theoretical
2.5
2.45 Experimental
2.4
0 4 6 8

Wt.% of Reinforcement
Micro – Hardness

The Vickers micro-hardness of cast Al6061-Graphite and

Gr
Al6061-Flyash matrix and their composites containing 0-8 100
wt. %’age of Graphite/Flyash are evaluated using diamond 95

Hardness
indenter at an applied load of 2N at 50X optical zoom with
dwell time 10 secs for each sample at different locations. 90
It can be observed that the hardness of the composite is 85
greater than that of its cast matrix alloy for Al6061-Flyash 80
and the hardness of the composite is less than that of its cast 75
matrix alloy for Al6061-Graphite. It can be observed that the
hardness of the Al6061- Flyash composite are higher than 0 4 6 8
that of the composite of Al6061-Graphite and is to the fact Wt.% of Reinforcement
that the matrix Al6061 and Flyash possess higher hardness
[19].

Table 4. Vicker’s hardness test results for different wt% of FA

FA/Graphite. 200
Wt% of Reinforcement Al6061-Flyash Al6061-Graphite 150
(Al6061-SiC / Mean micro Hardness
Mean micro 100
Al6061-Graphite) hardness no. hardness no.
(VHN) (VHN) 50
0 98 98 0
4 120.32 89 0 4 6 8

6 139.88 84 Wt.% of Reinforcement

8 152.01 96

Gr
FA 100
95
Hardness

200 90
150 85
Hardness

80
100
75
50
0 4 6 8
0
Wt.% of Reinforcement
0 4 6 8
Wt.% of Reinforcement
Graph: Hardness Vs Wt% of Reinforcement.(Line & Bar
Graph)

6 Conclusions
The present work on synthesis and characterization of
Al6061-Graphite composites led to the following
conclusions
 1. The composites containing Al-6061 with 0, 4, 6 and [7] A. R. K. Swamy1, A. Ramesha2, G.B. Veeresh
8wt% of Graphite particulates were successfully Kumar3*, J. N. Prakash4 “Effect of Particulate
synthesized by melt stirring method using three Reinforcements on the Mechanical Properties of
stages mixing combined with preheating of the Al6061-WC and Al6061-Gr MMCs”, Journal of
reinforcing particles. Minerals & Materials Characterization &
Engineering, Vol. 10, No.12,(2011), pp.1141-1152.
2. The addition of Graphite has resulted in increase in
tensile strength. The tensile strength is a function of
volume fraction of reinforcement. As volume
fraction increases tensile strength of composite
increases. However, addition of graphite has
resulted more improvement in tensile properties.

3. The experimental densities were found to be lower

than theoretical densities due to the presence of
porosities in all the composites.

4. The density of Al6061 reinforced with Gr/FA, the

experimental results are lower thenthe therotical
values and the fly ash is superior to Gr.

5. 5. The hardness of the fly ash is higher then the

graphite.

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