Mechanical Properties of The Modified Al-12%Si Alloy Reinforced by Ceramic Particles
Abstract
The aluminum alloys are important in many industrial applicationsbecause of their light weight and good mechanical properties. For this reasonmany researches had been done to enhance their properties. In this work amodifier was applied to Al-12%Si alloys by adding different percentage ofAntimony powder (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 Wt %). The mechanical properties ofthe modified alloys were considered. The optimum properties were found byadding 0.3% Antimony powder. This alloy was used as the matrix for theproduction of composite material (aluminum matrix reinforced by ceramicparticles (Y2O3) with different weight percent (3,6,9 and 12%Wt)) using vortextechnique. The casting parameters were 3 minute as a mixing time and 300 r.p.mas a mixing speed. The microstructure, hardness and wear test were applied on themodified alloy and composite materials. The effect of the addition of Antimonyand reinforcement particles on the microstructure, hardness and wear rate of thecomposite material were considered. The results show that the addition ofAntimony leads to the microstructure refinement and change the silicon shape inthe alloy from the flake – like or lamellar – like to fibrous – like In addition to theincreasing the hardness when Sb is up to 0.3%, after that the hardness willdecrease, as well as the addition of ceramic particles increase the hardness andd e c r e a se the wear rate.
Metrics