Abstract
Abstract
Friction stir additive manufacturing (FSAM) technique was used to fabricate the composite. Present investigation deals with the additive manufacturing of three AA 6061 sheets filled with TiC/GS particles in a groove with the variation reinforcement wt-%. Micro-structural investigation of the fabricated sample was conducted through optical microscopy, SEM and EDS. Optical and SEM results depict the uniform dispersal of the TiC and GS particles in the processed zone. Due to hard TiC and GS particles embedded in AA 6061, an improvement in hardness by 37.2% was observed for AA 6061/4 wt-%TiC/6 wt-%GS composite. Tensile and compressive strength was enhanced by 25.8% and 11% for the developed material. Corrosion test and thermal expansion behavior was investigated for the fabricated composite. 0.2 gm was the weight loss observed for the sample kept in NaCl solution for 72 h. Negligible amount of thermal expansion was noticed for the prepared material. TiC and GS particles, observed in the fractographic image shows the brittle fracture. EDS analysis confirmed the existence of elements like Al, Mg, Mn etc in the surface of the specimens. The present experimental results were also compared from the previous published work by the various academicians.