Production and Characterization of Al2024/SiC Composites with High SiC Reinforcement

Abstract

In this study, the production of Al2024/SiC particles containing 10%, 20% and 40% by weight SiC reinforcement by mechanical milling (MM) method and the compaction of these produced particles by hot pressing (SP) method were carried out. The effects of SiC particle reinforcement in varying weight ratios (%10, 20 and 40) in the structure on morphology, microstructure, elemental analysis, hardness and density properties were investigated. As a result of the experimental studies, a homogeneous elemental distribution was observed in the microstructure thanks to the homogeneous particles obtained by the MM process. However, it was determined that the amount of SiC particles increasing in weight in the structure caused the formation of porosity. The % relative density values of the composite samples with 10, 20 and 40 wt% SiC contents were measured as 99.060%, 98.301% and 95.252%, respectively. A very high increase in hardness values was observed with the increase in weight of SiC particle reinforcement in the structure. Hardness values were measured as 177.23 HV(0.5), 250.617 HV(0.5) and 316.67 HV(0.5) for Al2024/SiC composite materials containing 10, 20 and 40 wt% SiC particles, respectively.