REVIEW

ON
CASTING OF METAL MATRIX COMPOSITES

SUBMITTED

By

STUDENT DETAILS-

ANCHALA SALMAN KHAN 160316736317

MOHAMMED IMRAN 160316736322
P. BALA RAJU 160316736323

Under the Guidance of

PROF.DHANRAJ PAMAR J.
M.E Ph.D, MED, DCET

Department of Mechanical Engineering

DECCAN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
Darussalam Rd, Dar-us- Salam, Aghapura, Nampally, Hyderabad, pin-500001,
Telangana
1.INTRODUCTION:

In the last few decades the global era has been shifted from matrix composites to the Metal
Matrix Composites. Due to their diversified properties they are being used in different sectors
including majors as in automobile, aerospace and Défense. Some most important properties
include good mechanical properties, its low density and better corrosion properties as compared
to conventional metals and alloys. The distribution of reinforcement particulates in the matrix
and the morphology of secondary matrix phase act as the most enticing part for mechanical
properties of Metal matrix composites. Its low relative cost of production and beguiling
mechanical properties make it a very attractive campaigner for the applications in both scientific
and technological fields. The need for the search of new composites materials arises due to
highly specific properties can be achieved in composites for a specialized task and another fact
that the world is going to suffer in future due its limited resources of fuel. If talking with respect
to fuel consumption now we require materials that are light in weight and withstand high
strength in aerospace and automobile industry especially due to important deciding factor of
fuel consumption.

So on the basis of this above conclusion we are making a project on metal matrix composites
that is casting of metal matrix composites which includes manufacturing processes like casting,
machining and testing and analysis of microstructure.

We are using Aluminium as a base metal and adding some additives like aluminium oxides and
silicon carbides in various proportions depending upon the parameters of percentage of weight
and length and as per the standard required specimen.

And depending upon the proportions we are making four specimens which consists of same
additives of two specimens each by altering the proportions in terms of weight of additives that
is aluminium oxide and silicon carbide.

After the making of specimens as per our project that is the specimen depends upon the ASTM
E8 Standards by using the casting process and then finally done some finishing processes like
grinding.

By getting the standard specimens we are going to do tensile test and study of microstructure
on each specimen and noticing the varying properties of the specimens. Conventional
monolithic materials have limitations in achieving good combination of strength, stiffness,
toughness and density. To overcome these shortcomings and to meet the ever-increasing
demand of modern-day technology, composites are most promising materials of recent interest.
Composites are compound of two are more different materials to obtain a combination of
properties not available in either of the materials . Metal matrix composites (MMCs) possess
significantly improved properties including high specific strength, specific modulus , damping
capacity and good wear resistance compared to unreinforced alloys
2.Literature Review:

MMC (Metal matrix composites) are metals reinforced with other metal, ceramic or organic
compounds. They are made by dispersing the reinforcements in the metal matrix.
Reinforcements are usually done to improve the properties of the base metal like strength,
stiffness, conductivity, etc. Aluminum and its alloys have attracted most attention as base
metal in metal matrix composites [1]. Aluminum MMCs are widely used in aircraft,
aerospace, automobiles and various other fields [2]. The reinforcements should be stable in
the given working temperature and non-reactive too. The most commonly used
reinforcements are Silicon Carbide (Sic) and Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3). Sic reinforcement
increases the tensile strength, hardness, density and wear resistance of Al and its alloys [3].
The particle distribution plays a very vital role in the properties of the Al MMC and is
improved by intensive shearing. Al2O3 reinforcement has good compressive strength and
wear resistance.

SILICON CARBIDE REINFORCED AMC

Tamer Oz Benet al. investigated the mechanical and machinability properties of Sic particle
reinforced Al-MMC. With the increase in reinforcement ratio, tensile strength, hardness and
density of Al MMC material increased, but impact toughness decreased. Sedat Ozdenet al.
investigated the impact behaviour of Al and SiC particle reinforced with AMC under different
temperature conditions. The impact behaviour of composites was affected by clustering of
particles, particle cracking and weak matrix-reinforcement bonding. The effects of the test
temperature on the impact behaviour of all materials were not very significant. Srivatsan et al.
conducted a study of the high cycle fatigue and investigated the fracture behaviour of PA
metal matrix composites. The modulus, strength and the ductility of the two composite
microstructures decreased with an increase in temperature. The degradation in cyclic fatigue
life was more pronounced for the under-aged microstructure than the peak-aged
microstructure Also, for a given ageing condition, increasing the load ratio resulted in higher
fatigue strength.. It is thus shown that the PMS derived binder confers the desired strength to
the SiC preforms without impairing the mechanical properties of the resulting Al/SiC
composites. Sujan et al. studied the performance of stir cast Al2O3 and SiC reinforced metal
matrix composite material. The result showed that the composite materials exhibit improved
physical and mechanical properties, such as low coefficient of thermal expansion as low as
4.6x10-6/N C, high ultimate tensile strength up to 23.68%, high impact strength and hardness.
The composite materials can be applied as potential lightweight materials in automobile
components. Experimentally it is found that with addition of AlSiC reinforcement particles,
the composite exhibited lower wear rate compared to Al-Al2O3 composites. Zhang Peng et al.
studied the Effects of Particle Clustering on the flow behaviour of SiC particle reinforced Al
MMCs. The results revealed that during the tensile deformation, the particle clustering has
greater effects on the mechanical response of the matrix than the elastic response and also the
plastic deformation is affected very much. The particle clustering microstructure will
experience higher percentage of particle fracture than particle random distribution .The
current processing methods such as conventional stir casting technique often produce
agglomerated particles in the ductile matrix and as a result these composites exhibit extremely
low ductility. Whereas the Rheo-process significantly improved the distribution of the
reinforcement in the matrix by allowing the application of sufficient shear stress (s) on
particulate clusters embedded in liquid metal to overcome the average cohesive force or the
tensile strength of the cluster. Valencia Garcia et al. suggested an alternate technique of
compo forging of Al-Si Metal Matrix Composites reinforced with SiC. This method of
preparation increased the mechanical resistance to elongation .This method proves to be more
economical as it reduces production stages, as well as time and energy consumption.

They proposed from productivity viewpoint that a high strain rate region in which high values
of mass and efficiency are present should be selected for bulk working operations and the
lower strain rate regions for secondary metal working operations. Palani Kumar and
Karthikeyan assessed the factors influencing surface roughness on the machining of Al/SiC
particulate composites. The parameters like feed rate, cutting speed, % volume fraction of SiC
were optimized to attain minimum surface roughness using response graph, response table,
normal probability plot, interaction graphs and analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique.
Feed rate is the factor, which has greater influence on surface roughness, followed by cutting
speed and % volume fraction of SiC. The recommended machining conditions are low cutting
speed with high feed rate and depth of cut for rough and medium turning process. Using
coated carbide cutting tool, high cutting speed and low feed rate produces better surface
finish. Natarajan has compared the wear behaviour of A356/25SiC MMC with the
conventional grey Cast iron sliding against automobile friction material. It has been found that
the wear resistance of the composite is higher than the conventional grey cast iron and it is a
very suitable material for brake drum. However, it cannot be used for lining material because
of the presence of hard SiC particles. Quan Yanming and Zhou Zehua investigated about the
tool wear and its mechanism for cutting SiC ments shows that the major damage mechanism
is abrasive wear on tool flank edge for conventional tools and brittle failure for high hardness
tools in the cutting the composites. The major factors affecting tool life are volume fraction of
SiC and its size in the composite.

ALUMINIUM OXIDE REINFORCED AMC

Park et al. investigated the effect of Al2O3 in Aluminum for volume fractions varying from
5-30% and found that the increase in volume fraction of Al2O3 decreased the fracture
toughness of the MMC. This is due to decrease in inter-particle spacing between nucleated
micro voids. Park et al. investigated the high cycle fatigue behavior of Al-Mg-Si alloy
Al2O3 microspheres with the varying volume fraction ranging between 5% and 30%. They
found that the fatigue strength of the powder metallurgy processed composite was higher than
that of the unreinforced alloy and liquid metallurgy processed composite. Tiong et al.
compared the properties of two aluminum metal matrix system. It was found that the reactive
hot pressing of the composites resulted in the formation of ceramic Al2O3 and TiB2
particulates as well as coarse intermetallic had higher Al3Ti content and showed high tensile
strength, but low more fatigue EF. Kok fabricated the Al2O3 particle reinforced 2024 Al alloy
composites by vortex method and studied their mechanical properties and found the optimum
conditions of the production process with a pouring temperature of 700 N C, preheated mould
temperature of 550 N C, stirring speed of 900 rev/min, particle addition rate of 5 g/ min,
stirring time of min and with a applied pressure of 6 MPa. The wettability and the bonding
between Al alloy/Al2O3 particles were improved by applied

pressure but porosity will be decreased by this pressure. Abhishek Kumar et al.
experimentally investigated the characterization of A359/Al2O3 MMC using electromagnetic
stir casting method. They found that the hardness and tensile strength of MMC increases and
electromagnetic stirring action produces MMC with smaller grain size and good particulate
matrix interface bonding. Abouelmagd studied the hot deformation and wear resistance of
powder metallurgy aluminium metal matrix composites. It was found that the addition of
Al2O3 and Al4C3 increases the hardness and compressive strength. The addition of Al4C3
improved the wear resistance of the MMC. Kannan and Kishawy conducted orthogonal
cutting tests to study the effect of cutting parameters and particulate properties on the micro-
hardness variations on the machined Al2O3 particulate reinforced AMC. They found that the
micro-hardness is higher near the machined surface layer. Micro-hardness variations were
higher for low volume fraction and coarse particles.

Reference:

B. Vijaya Ramnath1, C. Elanchezhian1, RM. Annamalai1, S. Aravind1, T. Sri Ananda

Atreya1, V. Vignesh1 and C. Subramanian

1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Sairam Engineering College, West Tambaram,

Chennai-600 044, India 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shinas College of
Technology, Oman
3.Materials and Methodology:
Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a
hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting,
which is ejected or broken out of the mold to complete the process. Casting materials are usually metals or
various time setting materials that cure after mixing two or more components together; examples
are epoxy, concrete, plaster and clay. Casting is most often used for making complex shapes that would be
otherwise difficult or uneconomical to make by other methods. Heavy equipment like machine tool beds,
ships' propellers, etc. can be cast easily in the required size, rather than fabricating by joining several small
pieces.

Types of castings

• Centrifugal casting (industrial)

• Core plug
• Die casting
• Glass casting
• Investment casting
• Lost-foam casting
• Lost-wax casting
• Molding (process)
• Mycelium: Casting with mycelium
• Permanent mold casting
• Rapid casting
• Sand casting
• Slip casting

Die Casting
As our project includes casting process, we prefer to die casting. The process includes mould
filling and is controlled by regulating the pressure in the casting furnace. The casting process
involves mixing of aluminium and its additives, weighing, melting, pouring and solidification.
After the weighing of aluminium and its and its additives in our required proportions, melting
is done using the furnace. The molten metal is then poured in the die. Then the melt flows
through the riser tube which is positioned under the melt surface of the furnace and fills the
mould very smoothly with clean melt from the bottom up. After mould filling, solidification
starts from the opposite end of the mould in the direction of the tube. By increasing the
pressure in the casting furnace, good feeding is guaranteed. Cycle times are long since the
casting is connected to the big melt volume by the riser tube during solidification.
4.Experimental Analytical status:
TAGUCHI:
Optimization Fuzzy logic, genetic algorithm, scatter search, Taguchi technique and response
surface methodology are optimization techniques that are being applied successfully in
industrial applications for optimal selection of process variables. Taguchi methods are robust
design techniques widely used in industries for making the product/process insensitive to any
uncontrollable factors such as environmental variables. Dr. Taguchi of Nippon Telephones
and Telegraph Company, Japan has developed a method based on " ORTHOGONAL
ARRAY " experiments which gives much reduced " variance " for the experiment with "
optimum settings " of control parameters. Thus, the marriage of Design of Experiments with
optimization of control parameters to obtain BEST results is achieved in the Taguchi Method.
"Orthogonal Arrays" (OA) provide a set of well balanced (minimum) experiments and Dr.
Taguchi's Signal-to-Noise ratios (S/N), which are log functions of desired output, serve as
objective functions for optimization, help in data analysis and prediction of optimum result.

Standard Taguchi Orthogonal L4 Array Table:

No. of experiments P1 P2 P3

1 1 1 1
2 1 2 2
3 2 1 2
4 2 2 1
L4 Orthogonal Array for the casting of the metal matrix composites:

Using aluminium as a base metal.

No. of Additives(p1) % of
Experiments Additives(p2)
1 Al2O3 5%
2 Al2O3 7.5%
3 SiC 5%
4 SiC 7.5%
Specimen Standard:

Specimen is taken as per ASTM E8 standards.

A=Reduced section

n of the specimen

B=Grip section of the specimen

C=Diameter of the grip section

G=Gauge length of the specimen

L=Overall Length of the specimen

R=Radius of the shoulder

W=Dia of the reduced section of the specimen

Costing:

Cost of aluminium 1500/-

Cost of aluminium oxide AL2O3 600/-

Cost of silicon carbide SIC 1000/-

Cost for casting four pieces 2000/-

Cost for machining 3200/-

Cost for tensile test 3000/-

Cost for microstructure report 2000/-

5.Expected Time of Completion:

The project work will be completed at the 3rd week of march

THANK YOU