Articles
  • Influences of Si3N4 and Al2O3 reinforcement particulates on mechanical and wear properties of Mg (ZE41A) matrix hybrid metal matrix composite materials

  • R. Sivabalana,*, K. R. Thangaduraib and K. Leninc

  • aAssistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Annai Mathammal Sheela Engineering College, Namakkal, India
    bProfessor & Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jayaram College of Engineering and Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India
    cProfessor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, K Ramakrishnan College of Engineering, Samayapuram, Tiruchirappalli, India

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The aim of this research study is the investigating the properties of a hybrid Magnesium (Mg) Metal Matrix Composite (MMC) fabricated using integrated squeeze cum stir casting setup. The challenges of this liquid metallurgy processing route are non-uniform distribution and agglomeration of reinforcement particles; this could cause poor quality in composites, which might result in ruining the value of the properties and performance of the fabricated composites. The primary and secondary reinforcements investigated on this study are Silicon Nitride (Si3N4) and Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3) respectively. Magnesium alloy (ZE41A- mainly based on zinc, zirconium and cerium) was taken as base metal with micron sized Silicon Nitride (Si3N4) as primary reinforcement. Aluminum Oxide(Al2O3) is employed as secondary reinforcement to fabricate hybrid magnesium MMC of different weight fractions; (a) Pure Mg (ZE41A), (b) 1 wt% of Si3N4 and 1wt% of Al2O3, (c) 2 wt% of Si3N4 and 2 wt% of Al2O3, (d) 3 wt% of Si3N4 and 3 wt% of Al2O3 and (e) 4 wt% of Si3N4 and 4 wt% of Al2O3. The fabricated composites are analyzed for metallurgical, mechanical characterization and tribological behavior by optical microscopic analysis, SEM imaging, and EDAX analyses. The maximum ultimate tensile strength observed is 201.5 MP, a 11.93% increase than pure Mg ZE41A base alloy


Keywords: Magnesium ZE41A alloy, Hybrid MMC, Stir-Squeeze casting, Particle reinforcements, Characterization, Si3N4& Al2O3 reinforcement

This Article

  • 2021; 22(6): 605-614

    Published on Dec 31, 2021

  • 10.36410/jcpr.2021.22.6.605
  • Received on Feb 2, 2021
  • Revised on May 19, 2021
  • Accepted on Jun 3, 2021

Correspondence to

  • R. Sivabalan

  • Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Annai Mathammal Sheela Engineering College, Namakkal, India

  • E-mail: siramech41@gmail.com