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Experimental evaluation of strength and wear rate of AA7075/TAC/Si3N4/Ti

nano hybrid metal matrix composite

Article · November 2018

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)
Volume 9, Issue 11, November 2018, pp. 1690–1698, Article ID: IJMET_09_11_177
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijmet/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=9&IType=11
ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF STRENGTH

AND WEAR RATE OF AA7075/TAC/SI3N4/TI
NANO HYBRID METAL MATRIX COMPOSITE
J.Pradeep Kumar
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karunya Institute of Technology & Sciences, Karunya
Nagar, Coimbatore 641 114, India,

*D.S.Robinson Smart
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karunya Institute of Technology & Sciences, Karunya
Nagar, Coimbatore 641 114, India,

Chithirai Pon Selvan

School of Science and Engineering, Curtin University, Dubai, UAE,
pon.selvan@curtindubai.ac.ae

ABSTRACT
In most of the engineering applications like aerospace, marine, defence and military
applications, metal matrix composite has a major role due to its enhanced mechanical
and material properties such as high strength, high stiffness, and light weight, wear
resistance etc. Most of the components, which are being used in aerospace, military,
defence, automobiles and marine applications are subjected to high impact load, fatigue,
creep, wear, corrosion, vibration and high thermal stresses. Hence there is a need of
development of metal matrix composite with higher strength, wear resistance and
hardness. AA7075 reinforced with various wt% of Si3N4, TaC & Ti nano ceramic
reinforcement particulates were prepared by liquid route stir casting technique. The
experimental study reveals that tensile strength & compression strength increases due to
increase in wt% of nano reinforcements. Also, it was revealed that above 0.5 wt% TaC,
0.25 wt% Si3N4, the ductility of the developed AMCs gradually decreases due to the
addition of more wt% of hard reinforcement in to the matrix material. The addition of
Si3N4, Ti and TaC particles improved the strength, microhardness and wear resistance of
the developed AMCs.
Keywords: Aluminium metal matrix composite, Al7075, Si3N4, Stir Casting, Ti, TaC
Cite this Article: J.Pradeep Kumar, D.S.Robinson Smart and Chithirai Pon Selvan,
Experimental Evaluation of Strength and Wear Rate Of Aa7075/Tac/Si3n4/Ti Nano Hybrid
Metal Matrix Composite, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and
Technology, 9(11), 2018, pp. 1690–1698.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=9&IType=11

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 J.Pradeep Kumar, D.S.Robinson Smart and Chithirai Pon Selvan

1. INTRODUCTION
In modern engineering world, material science play a significant role in terms of better
tribological and mechanical properties. Composites are one of the most significant materials
known to men. A composite material is a amalgamation of two or more materials that provides
better mechanical and tribological properties than those of the individual components used alone
[1]. The composite material consists of two constituents such as matrix and reinforcement. The
merits of composite materials are their high stiffness, high strength to weight ratio, combined
with low density, when compared with bulk material allowing for a reduction of weight in the
finished part [2]. Aluminium metal matrix composites are continuously replacing conventional
aluminium alloys in various applications due to their predominant properties including low
thermal expansion, high wear resistance. Aluminium and its alloys are one of the most versatile
and economical metallic material for most engineering applications [3]. This paper emphasis on
production of hybrid metal matrix composite by conventional, low cost liquid state processing
technique called stir casting. Very less research works have been found in using AA7075
reinforced with hard ceramic materials such as Silicon Nitride (Si3N4), Tantalum Carbide (TaC),
Titanium (Ti) nano particles. Mir Irfan Ul Haq et.al [4] identified the influence of Si3N4 on
Al7075 alloy by liquid route compo-casting technique. Five different compositions (0 to 8 wt%)
of silicon nitride, which has excellent tribological properties. The result reveals that the
microhardness and compressive strength shows an increasing trend with increase in wt% of
silicon nitride particulates. However wear resistance of the developed composite material was
observed to be increasing with increase in normal load conditions. Haihua Chen et.al [5]
investigated the relative density and vicker’s hardness of TaB and nano-TaC ceramics. The result
reveals that nano TaC shows higher hardness value, when compared to tungsten carbide and nano
TaC with 5% Co composites. The fracture toughness of nano TaC shows a reasonable value,
when compared to TaC. Ashiwani Kumar et.al [6] investigated the influence of titanium metal
powder on dry sliding wear behaviour of Al7075 matrix alloy for gear application. Specific wear
rate according to ASTM G99 was measured at ambient atmospheric condition. The result shows
minimum coefficient of friction and specific wear rate with increase in sliding velocity, normal
load and sliding distance at 2 wt% of titanium filler material. The least specific wear rate was
observed for 0.5 wt% Ti powder at normal load of 80 N; sliding velocity of 1 m/s; sliding distance
of 250 m. In this research work, AA7075 as being one of the stiffest and strongest aluminium
alloy, has been used as matrix phase. Whereas, Silicon Nitride (Si3N4), Tantalum Carbide (TaC),
Titanium (Ti) nano powder has been used as a reinforcement phase. An attempt is made to
fabricate the nano hybrid aluminium metal matrix composite material by using liquid route stir
casting technique and study the effect of Si3N4, TaC and Ti content on mechanical properties of
the proposed AMCs.

2. MATERIALS AND METHOD

2.1 Material for Investigation
The present scenario demands that, the engineering component should be light weight, wear
resistance with high strength. In particulate alloy based metal matrix composite (MMC), alloys
acts as base material and reinforcement material is in the form of particles [7]. In the present
investigation, AA7075 was used as a base matrix material. The rod shaped aluminium material
with different length as shown in the Fig.2. For this research work, Silicon Nitride (Si3N4),
Tantalum Carbide (TaC) nano particles were used as reinforcement material procured from
Nanografi Co.Ltd, Turkey. In general, aluminium 7075 series alloys consists of zinc as a principle
alloying element and other elements as shown in Table 1. 7000 series have higher mechanical
properties among other aluminium alloys. AA7075 is often used in transport applications such as
military, marine, automotive, aircraft and aviation [8].

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 Experimental Evaluation of Strength and Wear Rate Of Aa7075/Tac/Si3n4/Ti Nano Hybrid Metal
Matrix Composite

Table 1 Composition of AA7075 by weight percentage [9]

Chemical
Si Fe Cu Mn Mg Cr Zn Ti Ni Zr Al
Composition
AA7075 0.4 0.5 1.6 0.32 2.5 0.15 5.5 0.2 0.01 0.02 Balance
Silicon Nitride (Si3N4) is a chemical compound of silicon and nitrogen. It is a white, high
melting point solid that is relatively chemically inert. It was chosen as reinforcement due to its
ability to resist high temperature wear and nature of chemical inertness [10]. The Si3N4 with
average particle size 40.55 nm was purchased with a purity of 99.5%. The SEM images of the
procured ceramic reinforcement nano particles are shown in the Fig.1. Tantalum Carbide (TaC)
is one of the candidate material among the transition metal carbide. TaC was procured with
99.5+% purity and of average particle size 236.71 nm. TaC has been widely used in industry as
hard coatings and cutting tools because of its chemical inertness, high hardness and excellent
corrosion resistance [5]. Titanium is a strong, light weight refractory material. It was procured
with 100% purity with average particle size 69.24 µm. In general, titanium is added to aluminium
alloys to obtain grain refinement in the microstructure of the alloys. Titanium and its alloys may
exhibit high ductility and toughness at very low temperature. It is used for the prevention of
corrosion and also offers life cycle cost benefits, weight savings and replacement costs.
(a) (b (c

Figure 1 SEM images of hard ceramic reinforcement nano particles (a) Si3N4 (b) TaC (c) Ti

2.2. Development of metal matrix composite material

AA7075 reinforced with Si3N4, TaC and Ti were fabricated using effective liquid route stir
casting technique [11]. The stir casting setup for manufacturing a composite material is shown in
Fig.3 and the different compositions are shown in Table 3.

Figure 2 AA7075 metal Figure 3 casting facility used to prepare

A7075/TaC/Si3N4/Ti nano hybrid composite material

The measured AA7075 alloy rods (300g) were kept inside a graphite crucible and was heated
using an electric furnace. The temperature of the furnace was maintained at 680°C. The measured
quantities of reinforcements in wt% as shown in Table 3 (Si3N4, TaC & Ti) were wrapped in

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 J.Pradeep Kumar, D.S.Robinson Smart and Chithirai Pon Selvan

aluminium foils and then slowly added in to the melt at 650°C. After mixing the reinforcements,
the molten aluminium was stirred at 200 rpm for about 2 mins.

Table.2 Process parameters used for stir casting process

S.No Process parameters Units Values

1 Stirring time mins 2
2 Stirring speed rpm 200
3 Melting temperature °C 650
4 Preheating temperature °C 250 - 300
5 Crucible size/Company - 4/Bell
6 Max temperature of the furnace °C 706
7 Type of furnace Electric muffle furnace
The processing parameters used for casting the composite are shown in Table 2. Stirring was
extended after complete mixing of reinforcements to ensure the uniform distribution into
aluminum matrix material. The aluminum melt reinforced with the Si3N4, TaC & Ti was poured
into preheated mold to form plates of 100mm x 100mm x 10mm.

Table.3 Various wt% of matrix and reinforcement used to develop AMMCs

Specimen.No AA7075 (wt %) TaC (wt %) Si3N4 (wt %) Ti (wt %)
1 100 - - -
2 99.5 0.5 - -
3 97.25 0.5 0.25 2
4 96.25 1 0.75 2

3. EXPERIMENTATION
After casting the rectangular aluminium blocks, various specimens were cut by using wire
Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) to carry out mechanical and wear characterization such
as tensile, compression, hardness and wear rate.

3.1. Tensile Strength

The tensile specimens were developed according to ASTM: E8M-11 standard having a gauge
length of 40 mm, a thickness of 6 mm and a gauge width of 7 mm as shown in the Fig.4. The
tensile testing was performed by using a Computerized Universal Testing Machine [12] (TMC,
Chennai – CUTM – 50 kN). Fig.5 shows the experimental set up used to conduct the tensile test
in ambient temperature.

Figure.5 Computerized Universal Figure 4 Tensile specimens according to ASTM standard

Testing Machine

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 Experimental Evaluation of Strength and Wear Rate Of Aa7075/Tac/Si3n4/Ti Nano Hybrid Metal
Matrix Composite

3.2. Compression Strength

The compression test specimens were developed as per ASTM E09 standard. Compression test
was carried out on short category cylindrical specimen with 13 mm diameter and 25 mm height
(L/D ratio = 1.923). The compression Strength was estimated by constant velocity UTM 100T
(TUEC-1000) computerized testing machine as shown in the Fig.6.

3.3. Hardness
The hardness of the fabricated hybrid metal matrix composite was conducted according to ASTM
E18M standard. The test was conducted at room temperature and microhardness of each
composition was measured at ten different locations to ensure repeatability of the results. The
microhardness measurement was carried out using a Vickers’s Microhardness Testing Machine
(Mitutoyo, Japan – HM113) as shown in the Fig.7.

3.4. Wear
Pin on disk machine [13] (DUCOM – TR 20-LE) as shown in the Fig.8 was used to forecast the
wear and friction behaviour of the developed hybrid aluminium matrix composite material. The
tests were carried out under the dry condition without any lubrication as per ASTM G99 standards
at ambient temperature. The required input parameters were set on the machine and the test was
conducted by varying load, sliding distance, sliding velocity.

Figure 8 Pin on disk machine (DUCOM – TR 20-LE)

Used for wear test

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 J.Pradeep Kumar, D.S.Robinson Smart and Chithirai Pon Selvan

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1. Tensile strength
Ultimate Tensile Stength ULTIMATE TENSILE STRENGTH (N/mm2)
250.00 211.79
183.52
200.00
154.67
(N/mm2)

150.00

100.00
40.43
50.00
0.00
1 2 3 4
Specimen

Figure 9 Variation of tensile strength with increase wt% of TaC and Si3N4
The Fig.9 shows the variation of the tensile strength of fabricated AMMCs and the weight
percentage of TaC and Si3N4. It is concluded that the tensile strength of AA7075 reinforced with
TaC and Si3N4 gradually increase up to 211.79 N/mm2 and decreases when the wt% of TaC and
Si3N4 increases from 0.5 to 1 & 0.25 to 0.75. This increase in ultimate tensile strength is because
of the presence of hard ceramic particles such as TaC and Si3N4 particles in the AMMCs, which
in turn increases the strength of AA7075. These hard ceramic particulates impart their strength
to the aluminium matrix alloy by their strengthening mechanism the load transfer from
reinforcement particles to the matrix material, due to which base material offer more resistance
to tensile stress.

4.2. Compression Strength

COMPRESSION STRENGTH (N/mm2)

700.00
Compression Strength

600.00
500.00 624.54
577.29
(N/mm2)

400.00
478.67 504.16
300.00
200.00
100.00
0.00
1 2 3 4
Specimen

Figure 10 Variation of compression strength with increase in wt% of TaC and Si3N4
The Fig.10 shows the variation of compression strength with increase in wt% of TaC and
Si3N4 reinforcement. The increase in the compression strength of AA7075 reinforced with TaC
and Si3N4 metal matrix composite is due to the incorporation of hard ceramic reinforcement
particulates i.e. TaC and Si3N4, which also enhances the surface area of the AMMCs. Therefore,
the hard surface area of TaC and Si3N4 offers huge resistance to plastic deformation. Also, it was
observed that the ductility gradually reduces due to the addition of more wt% of reinforcement

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 Experimental Evaluation of Strength and Wear Rate Of Aa7075/Tac/Si3n4/Ti Nano Hybrid Metal
Matrix Composite

beyond 0.5 wt% TaC and 0.25 wt% Si3N4 into the matrix material. The shear deformation of
unreinforced AA7075 was observed to be more due to the high ductility property.

4.3 .Hardness

VICKERS HARDNESS (VHN)

160.00
Hardness Value (HV)

140.00 137.79
120.00 127.63 127.89
100.00
80.00 72.84
60.00
40.00
20.00
0.00
1 2 3 4
Specimen

Figure 11 Variation of hardness with increase in wt% of TaC and Si3N4

The Fig.11 shows the effect of TaC and Si3N4 on hardness. As the wt% of reinforcement of
TaC and Si3N4 increases the hardness also increases. Also, as there are no reinforcements in
specimen 1 i.e. pure AA7075 aluminium alloy, the hardness is found to be low as 72.84 VHN.
This clearly shows that the addition of TaC and Si3N4 influences the hardness of the base matrix
AA7075 alloy. Also, the improvement in Vickers microhardness is due to the uniform dispersion
of reinforcement throughout the matrix material. Further due to the presence of hard ceramic
material in the soft aluminium matrix enhances the overall hardness of the matrix material.

4.4. Wear test

Wear rate
Sliding Distance - 1500 m Sliding velocity - 2 m/s Load - 20 N
Wear rate (micrometers)

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Time (minutes)
Specimen 1 Specimen 2 Specimen 3 Speciemen 4

Figure 12 Variation of wear rate with respect to time

The variation of wear rate of the nano hybrid metal matrix composite at different loads, sliding
distance and sliding velocity is shown in the Fig.12. From the above graph, it is evident that, wear
rate the developed composite material increases with increase in wt% of reinforcement.

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 J.Pradeep Kumar, D.S.Robinson Smart and Chithirai Pon Selvan

5. CONCLUSIONS
The AA7075-Si3N4-TaC-Ti nano hybrid aluminium metal matrix composites were produced by
liquid route stir casting technique with different wt% of reinforcement and the mechanical
strength and wear rate properties were assessed. From this study, the following inferences are
derived.
1. Hardness value of the developed composite found to be enhanced with increase in
wt% of hard ceramic reinforcement nano particles Si3N4 & TaC.
2. As the wt% of TaC and Si3N4 reinforcement increases to 0.5 and 0.25 respectively,
the compression strength and tensile strength are increasing from 154 to 211 N/mm2
and 478 to 674 N/mm2 respectively.
3. Tensile and compression strength was found to be 211.79 N/mm2 and 624.54 N/mm2,
when the wt% of TaC and Si3N4 was 0.5 and 0.25.
4. Wear rate of the developed composite material was found to be enhanced with
increase in time and wt% of TaC and Si3N4 nano ceramic reinforcement particles.
5. When the wt% of TaC and Si3N4 increases from 0.5 to 1 and 0.25 to 0.75, the tensile
and compression strength found to be decreasing.
6. Ductility of the developed AMCs gradually decreases with increase in wt% of TaC
above 0.5 and Si3N4 above 0.25.
7. Optimum wt% of TaC is 0.5 and Si3N4 is 0.25, which could result in higher hardness
without compromising the tensile and compression strength.

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Matrix Composite

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