Investigation of the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of an Al/SiC/ZrO2 Hybrid Composite by Spark Plasma Sintering Technique

Abstract

Nowadays, aluminum hybrid composite material usage is increasing as a result of a wide range of industrial applications. In the current study, the microstructure and mechanical properties of the Al/SiC/ZrO2 hybrid composite are analyzed using the spark plasma sintering process. In this paper, the weight percentages of primary and secondary reinforcement of SiC and ZrO2 were taken as 5% and 5%, 10% and 15% respectively, for fabrication purposes. The aluminum composite material reinforced with 5% w/w of SiC particles was compared with the aluminum hybrid composite material reinforced with SiC and ZrO2 nanoparticles. The test results show a uniform distribution of the reinforcements due to the fine densification of all the samples. The yield strength, elongation, hardness and compressive strength were decreased by 38%, 1.1% and increased by 32%, 12% respectively in the S4 hybrid composite material when reinforcement particles are added to the composite material, resulting in it being distinctive from the S1 sample. Ultimately, the presence of ZrO2 reinforcements improves the microstructure, microhardness, yield strength, elongation, and compression strength of the aluminum hybrid composite.