AI Summary & Key Takeaways
AI InsightThe results showed that higher yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) values were obtained with 0.5 wt % Al2O3 addition and with 0.25 wt % graphene addition when compared to the reference sample.
📌 3 Key Takeaways
Abstract
Composite materials have been used to replace many conventional materials because of high mechanical strength and lighter weight since several decades. In general, scientists are preparing metal matrix composites with 1 additive at different weight ratios. However, comparison of the effect of different reinforcements such as nano alumina (n-Al2O3) and graphene with metal casting is not studied before. In this paper, Al-7Si-0.3Mg aluminum alloy known as A356 was used as matrix material and different fractions of n-Al2O3 (0.5, 1 and 1.5 wt %) and graphene (0.075, 0.15 and 0.25 wt %) were used as reinforcements. Our novel hybrid stirring (mechanical and ultrasonic) was applied to produce samples with homogeneous distribution of additives and all the samples were subjected T6 heat treatment. Uniaxial tensile test was applied to determine the mechanical properties and quality index (QI) was calculated by using these results. The results showed that higher yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) values were obtained with 0.5 wt % Al2O3 addition and with 0.25 wt % graphene addition when compared to the reference sample. In comparison to the reference sample, UTS values increased 8.5% and 5.0% with adding n-Al2O3 and graphene, respectively. Likewise, QI values also increased as nearly 20.0% and 13.9% with adding n-Al2O3 and graphene, respectively.