STUDY OF MECHANICAL BEHAVIOUR ON ALUMIN IUM 6061 MATRIX COMPOSITES REINFORCED WITH Al2O3 AND B4C PARTICALS AND FRACTOGRAPHY STRUCTURE

Al6061 alloy is a wrought alloy with the main alloying constituent’s magnesium (Mg) and silicon (Si). The Al6061 alloy has great qualities at ambient temperature and good at wet ability, but it has poor high-temperature behaviour. Furthermore, by adding conventional reinforcements to make composites, it is important to develop the mechanical behaviour of aluminium metal matrix composites. Usually stir casting involves addition of ceramic particles into the softened melt in the crucible. In this study, Al6061- Al2O3-B4C composites are produced by novel dual stir casting in which particulates are mixed homogeneously with melt by mechanical stirring in two stages and solidification takes place with the suspended particles. These novel two stages of mixing of ceramic and oxide particulates improved the wet ability of these reinforcements with the matrix material.