A Study on the Effect of Sic and Ticn Reinforcements on Mechanical and Microstructural Properties of Friction Stirred Al 6061 Alloy

Abstract

The friction stir processing (FSP), its pass counts, and the inclusion of hardened particles (SiC and TiCN) were studied for their effects on the micro hardness, wear characteristics, and tensile performance of the Al6061 aluminium alloy. To examine the microstructure of the alloy, FSPed composite samples, optical microscopy were used. After a single FSP pass, microscopic examinations showed that the SiC and TiCN particles were not evenly distributed throughout the matrix. However, a significant improvement in the distribution of the SiC and TiCN particles was seen when the pass number was increased. The use of FSP caused a general softening in comparison to the base metal. The coarsening of Mg₂Si was likely to blame for the Al6061 alloy softening. The FSPed samples' tensile strength was significantly lower than that of the basic metal. As the addition of TiCN particles increases the wear behaviour and hardness of composite compared to the inclusion of SiC particles, applying a higher pass number of the process and also adding the toughened particles increased the micro hardness and wear behavior of the samples.