Effect of Weight Percentage on Mechanical Properties of Fused Silica Particulate Reinforced Nickel Alloy (M 35-1) Composite, with Influence of Chills

Abstract

History is often marked by the materials and technology that reflect human capability and understanding. Many a times scales begins with the stone age, which led to the bronze, iron, steel, aluminium and alloy ages as improvements in refining, smelting took place. Science made all these possible to move towards finding more advanced materials.Therefore in the present research work, an investigation has been carried out to fabricate and evaluate the microstructure, strength, micro hardness of chilled composites consisting of nickel matrix and fused SiO2particles as the reinforcement (size 40-150 μm) in the matrix. The reinforcement being added ranges from 3 to 9 wt. % in steps of 3%. The resulting composites cast in moulds containing metallic chill blocks (MS, SiC & Cu) were tested for their microstructure and mechanical properties. The main objective of the present research is to obtain fine grain Ni/SiO2chilled sound composite having very good mechanical properties. A detail of melting and composite preparation is described elsewhere by number of researchers. After melting the matrix material in an induction furnace at around 1600 °C in an inert atmosphere, coated fused SiO2particles preheated to 500 °C were introduced evenly into the molten metal alloy by means of special feeding attachments. The moulds for the plate type of castings 150*20*20 mm (American Foundrymen Society standard) were prepared using silica sand with 5% bentonite as binder and 5% moisture and finally they were dried in an air furnace at a temperature of 1580 °C, which was cooled from one end by a chill block set in the mould. After solidification the specimens of chill end were tested for various mechanical and microstructural studies. Keywords: Metal matrix composite, Mechanical properties, Nickel alloy, Fused silica, Chills.