International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology IJORAT

Vol 1, Issue 9, NOVEMBER 2016

FABRICATION OF NEW ALUMINIUM

METAL MATRIX
COMPOSITE REINFORCED WITH
SIC/RED MUD
Shunmugaraj L1, David Santhosh Christoper2, Jacob Ruba Singh3
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Enginering, Francis Xavier Engg College,
Tirunelveli, India1.
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Enginering, Francis Xavier Engg College,
Tirunelveli, India2.
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Enginering, Francis Xavier Engg College,
Tirunelveli, India3.
Abstract --Aluminium metal matrix composites(AMCs)refer the class of light weight and it have been
utilized in high-tech structural and functional applications including aero space, defence, automotive, and
thermal management area, as well as in sports and recreation, Aluminium based metal matrix
composites(MMCs)with addition of SIC and Red Mud reinforcement was fabricated by using powder
metallurgy(PM).Red mud emerges as the major waste material during production of alumina from
bauxite by the Bayers process. So composites using Red mud can be used to reduce the cost of the metal
matrix and environmental related issues. the samples were produced in different weight fraction of Red
Mud particles such as(5,10,15,20&25wt%)and constant weight fraction of SIC(10wt%) using green
compaction under 200MPa pressure. Two types of die 20mm&10mm used for compaction to obtain the
specimen. During compaction the 20mm MS die was not perform properly due to improper selection of
material for ejection rod and composite mixture was stick inner surface of the die which results poor
surface finish .so the split up 10mm carbide die was designed and perform compaction. Then the
compaction sample is sintered in the range 6500c for improving hardness, corrosive resistance. This
present study investigate thermal analysis(DSC) of the composite and results were obtained.
Key words:Aluminium metal matrix(Al), Silicon Carbide(SiC),Powder metallurgy(P/M),Red mud(RMD)

1.Introduction
Composite is a material made with
different constituents intimately bonded. The
matrix is a percolating soft phase(excellent
ductility, formability and thermal conductivity).In
which
are
embedded
the
hard
reinforcements(high stiffness and low thermal
expansion). The reinforcement can be continuous
or iscontinuous, orientated or disorientated.
The composites can be classified by
1. Matrix(metal,polymer,ceramic)
2. Reinforcement, which includes chemical
nature(oxides, carbides, nitrides),shape(continous

All Rights Reserved 2016 IJORAT

fibres, short fibres, whiskers, particulates) and

orientations
3. Processing route Metal matrix composites
(MMC) is engineered combination of the
metal(matrix) and hard particle/ceramic
(Reinforcement) to get tailored properties.The
matrix materials of MMC can be various, such
as alloy based on aluminium, magnesium, iron,
titanium, zinc copper, zirconium, nickel ,tin
,lead, and other pure metals.
1.1 Aluminium matrix composites
Aluminium is the most popular matrix for the
metal matrix composites(MMCs).the Al alloys are
quite attractive due to their low density, their
capability to be strengthened by precipitation, their
good corrosion resistance, high thermal and electrical
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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology IJORAT

Vol 1, Issue 9, NOVEMBER 2016

conductivity, and their high damping. Aluminium

matrix composites have been widely used in sporting
goods, electronic packaging, armours and automotive
industries. they offer a large variety of mechanical
properties depending on the chemical composition of
the aluminium matrix. They are usually reinforced by
Al2O3,SiC,C butSiO2,B,BN,B4C,AIC may also be
consider. The aluminium matrices are in general AlSiC. Aluminium-matrix composites are not a single
material but a family of materials whose stiffness,
strength, density, thermal and electrical properties can
be tailored. One of the major challenges when
processing MMCs is achieving a homogeneous
distribution of reinforcement in the matrix as it has a
strong impact on the properties and the quality of the
material. Several researchers have tried to optimize
the process parameters in order to obtain a uniform
distribution of the reinforcement. Metal matrix
composites have been emerged as potential
alternatives to conventional alloys in high strength
and stiffness applications. Aluminium alloy matrix
composites are suited to applications below the
temperatures of 400C (750F). For higher
temperatures, titanium based alloys offer promise as
matrices.

2.Experimentation details
2.1Materials used
Commercially available pure aluminium
(actual
composition
assay
99.5%,arsenic
.00055%,lead .03%,iron .5%)particle size of 200
mesh and used as the matrix material. In addition of
SiC and red mud materials along with commercial
pure aluminium. Black silicon carbide used as a
reinforcement supplied by carborandum universal
limited, koratty,India. Red mud is a one of the
major reinforced material in the present
study.Production of alumina from bauxite by the
bayers process is associated with the generation of
the red mud as the major waste material and is in
the shape of spherical shape and range in size of
10m.

The samples were made by different

composition of Aluminium, silicon carbide and
Red mud. By increasing the levels of Red mud
reinforcement varies from(5 to 25%) and keeping
SiC (10%) as constant. different weight fraction of
samples are listed below

100%

80%
60%
40%
20%
0%

Red Mud
Silicon carbide
Aluminium

chart-1 preparation of material composition

2.4 Blending
Powders are same chemistry but possibly
different particle sizes are intermingled. Different
particle size are often blended to reduce porosity.
Adding lubricants such as graphite, zinc striate to
improve flow characteristics and also to reduce
wear. Commercially pure Aluminium, silicon
carbide and red mud are blended in a lathe with a
cylindrical shape mixer rotating at 2000 rpm inn 20
mins. several parameters such as particle size,
blending speed and duration have taken into
consideration to ensure Red mud and SiC particles
distributing homogeneously in the matrix powders.

2.2 Fabrication method (powder metallurgy)

There are several fabrication techniques to
produce MMC materials in these study . powder
metallurgy are used to produce the components
from the metallic powder this process wastes very
little material about 97% of the starting powders
are converted to product. Powder Metallurgy is a
highly evolved method of manufacturing reliable
net shaped components by blending elemental or
pre-alloyed powders together, compacting this
blend in a die, and sintering or heating the pressed
part in a controlled atmosphere furnace to bond the
particles metallurgically. Powder metallurgy parts
can be made with specified level of porosity, to
produce porous metal parts.
2.3 Preparations of materials
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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology IJORAT

Vol 1, Issue 9, NOVEMBER 2016
Figure 1: Blending powders in a lathe

2.5 Compaction
Press powder into the desired shape and
size in dies using a hydraulic or mechanical press.
Pressed powder also called as green compact
Provides better packing of particles leads less
porosity. Smaller particles provide greater strength
mainly due to reduction in porosity. The blended
particles are poured into the 15mm MS die, the
ejection rod were coated by the graphite lubricant
mixed with SAE oil. Then the die were placed in
the casting, by using hydraulic press the blended
powder were compacted at 200 MPa pressure.
After compaction the ejection rod is used to
ejection the green compact.

specimen, It has the length of 120mm length

and 15 mm diameter. It consists of upper
punch, lower punch, spacer, ejection rod,
bottom plate.
2.5.2 Die design failure
By using hydraulic press the compaction
was performed in 15mm M die at
150MPa.while ejecting the specimen from die
the ejection rod bend due to improper selection
of material, and also the length of the die is too
long, The compacted specimen was stick in the
inner surface which results poor surface finish.

Figure 3:Ejection rod failure

2.5.3 Redesign of die

While observing the previous die design
failure factors, It is necessary to taking
corrective action to eliminate such factors. So i
design the new split die which consists of three
parts and also introduce the carbide in the inner
surface area of the die to avoid the poor
surface finish.the diameter of the die also
reduced.

Figure 2: Compacted piece using hydraulic press

2.5.1 Die design

In
powder
metallurgy
process
requirement of die is very important so i have
designed 15mm MS die to obtain the
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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology IJORAT

Vol 1, Issue 9, NOVEMBER 2016

Figure 4:Split up die

Figure 6:Sintered specimen

2.6 Sintering
Sintering is the thermal treatment,
which carrying below the melting point of the
main constituent. It brings some physical and
chemical changes. The variables which are
considering during sintering these are
temperature and soaking time. After obtained
the green compact it is brittle and low in
strength so it is necessary to perform sintering,
The green compact is covered by the chalk
paste to prevent the atmospheric effects, then it
is placed into the furnace in the range of
temperature
6500C.
Soaking
time:
30mins,45mins,1hr,2hr for each samples
Soaking temperature :150,300,450,600,6500C

3. Results and discussions

Experiments have been conducted by
varying the weight fraction of Red Mud
(5%,10%,15%,20%,25%) and constant weight
fraction of SiC(10%).thermal analysis (DSC)
curves
are recorded and plotted. Three
samples were taken to perform the analysis
which are 1,3,5.the corresponding values of
crystallization time and temperature were
calculated from the curves

Figure-7(85Al10SiC5RMD)

Figure 5:Furnace

Sintering is carried out based on the above

parameters. After sintering powder were
bonded and achieve certain physical and
mechanical properties such as good strength
and high surface finish

Figure-8(65Al10SiC25RMD)

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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology IJORAT

Vol 1, Issue 9, NOVEMBER 2016

References:

1.

2.

Manoj Singla, Lakhvir Singh, Vikas

Chawla, Study of Wear Properties of AlSic Composites, Journal of Minerals &
Materials
Characterization
&
Engineering, Vol. 8, No.10, 2009
.
Manoj Singla1, D. Deepak Dwivedi1,
Lakhvir
Singh2,
Vikas
Chawla3*Development of Aluminium
Based Silicon Carbide Particulate Metal
Matrix Compositepp 455-467, 2009

Figure- 9(75Al10SiC15RMD)

3.
The results as indicated figure 7,8,9 show
the
increasing the peak values of
crystallization temperature with increasing the
weight percentage of red mud particles and 25
percentage values of red mud samples gives
the maximum crystallization temperature.
During the study it was concluded using
red mud particles in the composites can turn
the industrial wastages, and also solve the
environmental related issues and also obtained
the proper die design for compacting the
powder mixtures. It was clearly identified the
sintering temperature in 6500C which gives
better bonding between particles and good
surface finish.

All Rights Reserved 2016 IJORAT

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S,Das, R.Behera, A.Datta, G.Majumdar,

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