Effect of Silicon Carbide and Boron Carbide on Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Aluminium 7075 Composites for Automobile Applications

• Published in: SILICON Vol. 15; no. 14; pp. 6147 - 6171
• Main Authors: Bharathi, P., Sampath Kumar, T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aluminum base alloys; Boron carbide; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Compressive strength; Corrosion resistance; Electron back scatter; Environmental Chemistry; Grain structure; Heat conductivity; Heat transfer; Hybrid composites; Inorganic Chemistry; Lasers; Materials Science; Mechanical alloying; Mechanical properties; Optical Devices; Optics; Photonics; Polymer Sciences; Powder metallurgy; Silicon carbide; Sintering (powder metallurgy); Thermal conductivity; Tribology; Wear rate; Weight reduction; Mechanical Properties; Silicon carbide; Al7075; Powder metallurgy; Microstructure; Boron carbide
• ISSN: 1876-990X; 1876-9918
• DOI: 10.1007/s12633-023-02498-0

In the current study, aluminium 7075 were reinforced with different wt% (2 to 6) of silicon carbide (SiC) and aluminium 7075 hybrid composites reinforced with different wt% (2 to 6) of silicon carbide (SiC) with constant 2 wt% of boron carbide (B 4 C) were fabricated using the Powder Metallurgy method. The microstructural study of sintered samples was performed using FESEM. This mechanical alloying process helped uniform distribution of SiC and B 4 C particles throughout the aluminium matrix. Electron backscatter diffraction studies demonstrated that Al7075 + 6wt%SiC particles have a finer grain structure. Aluminium 7075 alloy composites analysed using XRD to confirm the peak phases. The higher hardness values were obtained for Al7075 + 6wt% SiC and Al7075 + 3wt%SiC + 2wt%B 4 C composites as 195 HV and 161 HV respectively. The higher compressive strength values were obtained for Al7075 + 3wt%SiC and Al7075 + 2wt%SiC + 2wt%B 4 C composites as 220 MPa and 175 MPa respectively. The density of hybrid composites had a considerable impact on the influence of SiC and B 4 C particles. The surface nature of Al7075 + 2wt%SiC and Al7075 + 4wt%SiC + 2wt%SiC composites have obtained as hydrophilic and hydrophobic respectively. Based on the thermal conductivity measurement, it was found that the Al7075 + 6wt%SiC composite sample has obtained the thermal conductivity of 58.99 W/m.K. Furthermore, the investigation on wear studies showed the wear rate for Al7075 + 4wt%SiC and Al7075 + 6wt%SiC + 2wt%B 4 C composite as smaller under the load of 10N. The Al7075 + 6wt%SiC and Al7075 + 2wt%SiC + 2wt%B 4 C hybrid composites have a higher corrosion resistance than in a 3.5% than the other aluminium 7075 composite samples.