archives of civil and mechanical engineering 18 (2018) 1645–1650

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Original Research Article

Effect of process parameters on mechanical

properties of hollow glass microsphere reinforced
magnesium alloy syntactic foams under vacuum
die casting

G. Anbuchezhiyan a, T. Muthuramalingam b,*, B. Mohan c

a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Valliammai Engineering College, Kattankulathur, Kancheepuram District,
Tamilnadu 603203, India
b
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur Campus,
Kancheepuram District, Tamilnadu 603203, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anna University, CEG Campus, Chennai, Tamilnadu 600025, India

article info abstract

Article history: In the present study, an endeavour has been made to investigate the mechanical properties
Received 20 June 2018 of hollow glass microspheres reinforced die cast magnesium alloy under vacuum die casting
Accepted 30 July 2018 process. The particle size, mass fraction, stirring speed has been considered as input process
Available online parameters to analyze the mechanical properties such as hardness, compressive strength,
porosity and density of the syntactic foams. Taguchi-Grey relational based multi response
Keywords: optimization has been utilized to compute the optimal process parameters and find the
Syntactic foams influence of those parameters on performance measures of casting process. From the
Vacuum casting experimental investigation, the optimal process parameters have been found as particle
Magnesium size (45 microns), mass fraction (20%) and stirring speed (600 rpm) among the chosen
HGM process parameters. The highest max–min indicates the particle size has higher influence
Optimization on determining the mechanical properties of the syntactic foam owing to its importance on
determining the porosity. It has been also observed that the density of syntactic foam
decreases with increases in the mass percentage of hollow glass microspheres.
© 2018 Politechnika Wrocławska. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

equipments. The syntactic foam is synthesized by introducing

1. Introduction
Low density materials with high specific strength are signifi-
cant for marine industry providing buoyancy for subsea
apparatus such as submersible vehicles and oceanographic
a light weight material as reinforcement in a matrix alloy.
Gupta et al. (2010) studied about the need and synthesize of
closed cell syntactic foam by dispersing rigid hollow particles
in a metal matrix material. Since the hollow microspheres or
the gas-containing particles are filled mechanically into the

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: tsgaaa1981@gmail.com (G. Anbuchezhiyan), muthu1060@gmail.com (T. Muthuramalingam), mohan@mitindia.edu
(B. Mohan).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acme.2018.07.008
1644-9665/© 2018 Politechnika Wrocławska. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1646 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 18 (2018) 1645–1650
matrix alloy, the syntactic foams can be categorized as physical
foams [1]. Bunn and Mottram (1993) stated that hollow glass
microspheres can reduce the density of the syntactic foam
considerably [2]. Tao et al. (2009) experimentally proved that
metal matrix syntactic foams can possess excellent mechanical
properties such as high specific strength, stiffness and excellent
energy absorption capability as compared with traditional
metal foams [3]. Schaller et al. (2003) studied that the
magnesium foams have higher specific strength and stiffness
compared with aluminium foams owing to its lower density as
compared with aluminium [4]. However it is highly tedious
process to synthesize the magnesium based syntactic foams
due to its higher pyrophoric nature. Rohatgi et al. (2009) studied
the feasibility of reinforcing the fly ash cenospheres in die cast
magnesium alloy to increase the hardness of the syntactic
foam [5]. Anbuchezhiyan et al. (2017) synthesized hollow glass
microspheres (HGM) reinforced magnesium syntactic foam
using stir casting approach. It has been inferred that the
fabricated syntactic foam could exhibit better mechanical
properties such as compressive strength, hardness, porosity
and density [6]. However the wettability of reinforcement
particles with matrix alloy is not favorable in conventional
casting process. Hence the vacuum die casting method can be
adopted to nullify this drawback as well as to reduce matrix
porosity. Li et al. (2016) found that vacuum die casting process
could significantly improve the mechanical properties of the
components by reducing the gas pores [7]. Wen et al. (2012)
proved that the vacuum die casting process can increase the
corrosion resistance of AM60B magnesium alloy [8]. Patel et al.
(2012) demonstrated that vacuum die cast based AM60B
magnesium alloy could exhibit superior fatigue resistance [9].
It is very important to analyze the effects of the individual
process parameters on performance measures in any process for
improving the product quality. The optimization of input
parameters involved in any manufacturing process can enhance
the performance measures in such process. Tham et al. (1999)
studied the influence of processing parameters on synthesis of
Al–SiC particle reinforced metal matrix composites by the
disintegrated melt deposition technique. The processing param-
eters include stirring speed, stirring time and total flight distance
to analyze the porosity level [10]. Daoud et al. (2006), investigated
the influence of various processing parameters on synthesizing
ZC63 Magnesium alloy-fly ash microballoon foam using stir
casting approach. The melt temperature, type of the stirrer,
pouring temperature and mould type have been chosen as input
process parameters to analyze the distribution of the fly ash
microballoons in the Magnesium matrix alloys [11]. Mo et al. (2014)
fabricated the magnesium alloy ZAX12405 by squeeze casting
method. The effects of processing parameters including applied
pressure, pouring temperature and dwell time on microstructure
and mechanical properties of ZAX12405 alloy have been
investigated through single response optimization [12].
If any process needs more than one better performance
measures, conventional single response optimization is not
helpful. Hence multi response optimization techniques have
to be employed. The synthesized magnesium syntactic foam
needs to satisfy multiple desirable properties such as lower
density, higher hardness and compressive strength. Hence it is
necessary to adopt multi response optimization approach
while synthesizing the syntactic foam using vacuum die
casting method. Das et al. (2016) optimized the processing
parameters such as pouring temperature, reaction time and
stirring speed in liquid melt-stirring process using an efficient
grey based differential evolution algorithm in order to achieve
better mechanical properties such as micro hardness, tough-
ness and ultimate tensile strength [13]. Muthuramalingam and
Mohan (2014) made an attempted to apply multi response
optimization approach for deriving optimal process parame-
ters involved in electrical discharge machining process [14]. It
has been found that Taguchi-grey relational approach can give
better optimal process parameters with higher accuracy
compared with other approaches.
From the literatures, it has been observed that only little
research attention has been given to magnesium based syntactic
foams. It has been inferred that many research works have been
focused on effect of process parameters on mechanical proper-
ties while synthesizing syntactic foam. It has been noticed that
multi response optimization approach has not been applied on
synthesis of magnesium matrix syntactic foams (MMSF). Hence
the present experimental investigation has been carried out. The
present study deals about adaptation of Taguchi-Grey relational
based optimization approach on synthesizing AZ91D magne-
sium alloy matrix reinforced with hollow glass microspheres
(HGM) under vacuum die casting method to enhance the
mechanical properties.
2. Experimental methodology
In the present study, AZ91D/HGM syntactic foams under
dissimilar mass fraction have been synthesized using vacuum
die casting method.
2.1. Synthesis of magnesium syntactic foam using
vacuum die casting process
The melting furnace has been preheated to 450 8C subse-
quently 1 kg of AZ91D magnesium alloy along with dissimilar
mass fraction percentage such as 10%, 15% and 20% of HGM.
The particles have been taken into the vortex with average size
of 45 mm, 55 mm and 65 mm as shown in Fig. 1. A mixture of SF6
and argon at a flow rate 40 l per minute has been used to
prevent oxidation and combustion of magnesium during all
process. The temperature has been maintained at 800 8C for
5 min to completely melt the metal. Then the stirring has been
done at 450 rpm, 500 rpm and 600 rpm for 15 min to ensure
homogeneous distribution of reinforcement in the matrix
alloy. An enhanced vacuum die-casting method has been
developed by adding a vacuum device along with the bottom of
the mould as shown in Fig. 2. It has created a vacuum inside
the mould cavity during casting. The die has been coated with
sulphur powder to prevent oxidation. The molten MMSF have
been allowed to cool inside the die at ambient conditions. The
micro structure of synthesized HGM reinforced magnesium
matrix syntactic foam is shown in Fig. 3.
2.2. Measurement of performance measures
The hardness values of the syntactic foam have been found
using Vickers micro hardness tester with the applied load of
 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 18 (2018) 1645–1650 1647

Fig. 1 – Average size of hollow glass microspheres.

0.5 kg. The compressive strength has been computed by Auto
instruments compression testing machine. The specimens
have been compressed using computer controlled universal
testing machine (UTM) as per ASTM E9 standard at the cross
head speed of 0.5 mm/min. The density of the fabricated foam
has been evaluated using Archimedes method with ethanol as
suspending medium. In the present study, the percentage of
porosity has been analyzed as per ASTME562 & E1245.
array has been selected as reported by Muthuramalingam and
Mohan, (2014) [14]. The computation of signal-to-noise ratio (S/
N) ratio as quality analysis tool is very essential. The hardness
and compressive strength have been chosen as larger the
better type of characteristics. The porosity and density of
syntactic foams have been considered as smaller the better
type of characteristics. The S/N ratio values of the response
parameters have been found as reported by Ramamurthy et al.

2.3. Taguchi-Grey relational analysis

The present study deals about find the influence of process

parameters and optimal combination of process parameters of
vacuum die casting approach on synthesizing magnesium
syntactic foam using Taguchi-Grey relational analysis. Tagu-
chi method helps to reduce the number of experimental trials
in casting process by implementing orthogonal array based
design of experiments. The particle size (PS), mass fraction
(MF), stirring speed (SS) has been considered as input process
parameters to analyze the mechanical properties such as
hardness, compressive strength, porosity and density of the
syntactic foams. Since there are totally three input process
parameters have been considered in the process, L9 orthogonal

Fig. 2 – Schematic arrangement of vacuum die casting Fig. 3 – Micro structure of magnesium matrix syntactic
approach. foam.
1648 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 18 (2018) 1645–1650

Table 1 – Orthogonal L9 table for responses.

Experimental trials Casting process parameters Response parameters

Particle size Mass fraction Stirring Hardness Compressive strength Porosity Density
(mm) (%) speed (MPa) (%vol) (g/cc)
(RPM)
1. 45 10 450 80.9 241 3.78 1.62
2. 45 15 500 119.0 266 19 1.51
3. 45 20 600 148.3 280 28 1.42
4. 55 10 500 75.8 239 4.12 1.58
5. 55 15 600 106.0 259 18 1.48
6. 55 20 450 116.9 243 24 1.38
7. 65 10 600 74.6 160 5.49 1.56
8. 65 15 450 101.3 211 17.2 1.52
9. 65 20 500 114.1 232 22.02 1.39

Table 2 – Signal to noise ratio values with its normalized values of MMSF.
Experimental trials Hardness Compressive Porosity Density
strength (%vol) (g/cc)
(MPa)

S/N N S/N S/N N S/N S/N N S/N S/N N S/N

1. 38.1589 0.1179 47.6403 0.7319
11.5498 0
4.1903 1
2. 41.5109 0.6796 48.4976 0.9083
25.5751 0.8064
3.5795 0.5615
3. 43.4228 1 48.9432 1
28.9432 1
3.0458 0.1782
4. 37.5934 0.0232 47.5679 0.7171
12.2979 0.0430
3.9731 0.8441
5. 40.5061 0.5113 48.2659 0.8607
25.1055 0.7794
3.4052 0.4363
6. 41.3563 0.6537 47.7121 0.74674
27.6042 0.9230
2.7976 0
7. 37.4548 0 44.0824 0
14.7914 0.1864
3.8625 0.7646
8. 40.1122 0.4453 46.4856 0.4944
24.7106 0.7567
3.6369 0.6026
9. 41.1457 0.6185 47.3098 0.6639
26.8563 0.8800
2.8603 0.0450

(2015) [15]. The Grey relational approach is used to investigate
the multiple performance characteristics in any process. The
grey relational based optimal combination of process param-
eters has been performed with three stages of computation as
reported by muthuramalingam and Mohan, (2014) [16].
as reinforcement under vacuum die casting method. Table 1
shows the values of casting process factors with their
corresponding response parameters.
3.1. Computation of Grey relational grade

3. Result and discussion
In the present study, an effort has been performed to analyze
the effects of process parameters on mechanical properties of
synthesis magnesium matrix with hollow glass microspheres
Table 2 shows the signal to noise (S/N) ratio values with its
normalized values (N S/N) of MMSF. The normalized values
have been introduced to normalize the all response values into
between 0 and 1. These values have been converted into grey
relational grade as mentioned by Muthuramalingam and
Mohan (2014) [14]. Since the process contains both higher and

Table 3 – Computation of grey relational grade.

Experimental trials Grey relational grade values Grey relational grade

Hardness Compressive strength Porosity Density

1. 0.3618 0.6510 0.3333 1 0.5865
2. 0.6095 0.8451 0.7208 0.5327 0.6770
3. 1 1 1 0.3783 0.8446
4. 0.3386 0.6386 0.3432 0.7623 0.5207
5. 0.5057 0.7821 0.6938 0.4701 0.6129
6. 0.5908 0.6638 0.8666 0.3333 0.6136
7. 0.3333 0.3333 0.3806 0.6799 0.4318
8. 0.4741 0.4972 0.6726 0.5572 0.5503
9. 0.5672 0.5981 0.8065 0.3437 0.5788
 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 18 (2018) 1645–1650
Table 4 – Average response table for grey relational grade.
Input factor Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Max–Min
Particle size (P) 0.6659 0.5652 0.4680 0.1978
Mass fraction (M) 0.5271 0.5129 0.6591 0.1462
Stirring speed (S) 0.5414 0.5590 0.5987 0.0574
Total mean grey relational grade (bm) 0.5664
smaller the better characteristics, the distinguishing coeffi-
cient has been considered as 0.5. The grey relational grade
values have been tabulated as shown in Table 3.
3.2. Computation of optimal combination and significant
factors
The total grey relational grade can be computed by finding the
average of all grey relational grade values for each parameters
combination. The higher grey relational grade indicates the
better multi response performance characteristics among the
chosen parameter combinations. Hence it is proved that
experiment 3 has the optimal parameters setting for best multi
response characteristics such as hardness, compressive
strength, porosity and density among the selected parameter
combinations. However it is necessary to compute better
parameter combination in any combination of selected
process parameters. This can be done by finding the average
of grey relation grades in all levels of process parameters.
The average grey relational grade value of each parameter for
each level is shown in Table 4. These values have been calculated
by obtain the average in all the level process parameters for each
level group. Since it denotes the level of correlation between
obtained sequence and reference sequence, the higher value of
average grey grade value indicates stronger correlation between
them. From the experimental results, the optimal combination of
process parameters has been found as particle size (level 1), mass
fraction (level 3) and stirring speed (level 3). Hence the values of
optimum process parameters have been found as particle size
(45 microns), mass fraction (20%) and stirring speed (600 rpm). The
higher max–min value indicates the most significant factor on
determining response parameters in any process. Hence it has
been observed that the particle size has the most significant factor
among the input factors on determining the performance
measures owing to its influence of establishing porosity in MMSF.
3.3. Confirmation experiment
The confirmation test has been performed in order to identify
the optimal process parameters to validate the experimental
results. The experiment has been conducted with optimal
combination of the process parameters in the confirmation
test. The predicted grey relational values using the optimal
process parameters is given as
X increasing the particle size of HGM owing the presence lighter
Predicted mean value ðbÞ ¼ bm þ ðbn
bm Þ (1)
The predicted value has been computed as 0.7909. The
response parameters has been observed as hardness (148.3),
compressive strength (280 MPa), porosity (28%), density
1649
Fig. 4 – Effects of casting process parameters on
performance measures.
(1.39 g/cc) at the optimal parameter setting. The grey relational
grade value has been found as 0.8333. The grey relational grade
value of confirmation experiment has been improved by 5.08%
from the predicted mean value.
3.4. Effects of process parameters on performance
measures
The effects of process parameters on response parameters
have been studied using the main effects plots derived from
Minitab software package. The deviation from the horizontal
mean line is directly proportional to influence of process
parameters on performance measures as reported by Muthur-
amalingam and Mohan (2014) [14]. From Fig. 4, it has been
observed that the particle size and mass fraction of reinforce-
ment has higher dominant nature on determining the
performance measures in the vacuum die casting process of
magnesium matrix syntactic foam. The particle size and mass
fraction of reinforcement particles in matrix of syntactic foams
determines the performance measures such as density,
compressive strength, porosity and hardness as reported by
Anbuchezhiyan et al. (2017) [6]. The hardness of the MMSF has
been attributed by its reduced grain size and existence of glass
HGM particles acting as obstacles to the motion of dislocations.
Hence the particle size has higher impact on determining the
hardness of MMSF. The hardness has been increased as the
lower particle size due to more closely packed reinforcement
particle in the matrix. The porosity can be characterized by the
size of HGM particles in MMSF. Due to increase in porosity of
syntactic foam, the compressive strength can also be
increased which can lead to cushioning effect. Since the
cushioning takes place in the MMSF owing the presence of
HGM particles, the compressive stress can be influenced by the
particle size and mass fraction of reinforcement particles. The
relative density of the syntactic foam has been decreased with
and stiffness nature of HGM particles. The stirring speed
ensures the homogeneous distribution of reinforcement in the
matrix alloy. Hence it has provided higher contribution in
hardness of syntactic foam. Nevertheless it could not have
higher dominant nature on other performance measures such
1650 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 18 (2018) 1645–1650
as porosity, density and compressive strength. Hence the
stirring speed has lower impact on determining all perfor-
mance measures of syntactic foam.
4. Conclusions
In the present study, an endeavour has been performed to
introduce Taguchi-Grey relational based multi response
optimization of vacuum die casting process to synthesis
hollow glass microspheres reinforced magnesium matrix
syntactic foam. The casting process parameters such as
particle size, mass fraction and stirring speed have been
considered to analyze their effects on hardness, compressive
strength, porosity and density. From the experimental
investigation, the following conclusions have been made.
 The optimum process parameter combination is found as
particle size (45 microns), mass fraction (20%) and stirring
speed (600 rpm) among the chosen process parameters and
its variables and verified using confirmation test with an
improvement of 5.08% from the predicted value.
 The particle size can provide higher significant nature
among input parameters for the fabrication of magnesium
metal matrix composite owing to its ability on determining
performance measures.
 The density of syntactic foam decreases with increases in
the mass percentage of hollow glass microspheres.
 The stirring speed ensures the homogeneous distribution of
reinforcement in the matrix alloy.
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