Experimental Investigations of Al-Si alloy based Al2O3 and SiC Particle Reinforced Metal Matrix Composite

The present paper deals with the study of microstructure and mechanical behaviour of Al2O3 and SiC reinforced Al-Si alloy metal matrix composites (MMCs). Matrix alloys with fixed percentage of Al2O3 and varying percentage of 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10% of SiC were made using stir casting technique. The Microvicker hardness test shows that as the percentage of reinforcement material increases the value of hardness is also increases and value of hardness for each sample is having superior hardness than its previous one because of variation of reinforcement and the last sample has highest value of hardness because it has highest percentage of reinforcement. The characterization of the Al-Si alloy MMCs was carried out by Optical Microscopy (OM), and Xray Diffraction (XRD). An X-ray diffractometer is used to confirm the presence of Al2O3 and SiC as well as to estimate quantitatively the weight percentage of Al2O3 and SiC particles in the composite for the various reaction holding times. Microstructures of the composites are studied by Optical Microscopy (OM).