OPTIMISATION OF FRICTION SPECTRAL PROCESS PARAMETERS ON AA8011 REINFORCED WITH TITANIUM DIOXIDE (TIB2) AND ZIRCONIUM OXIDE (ZRO2). METAL HYBRID MATRIX

Abstract

Metal matrix composites are often used in applications that need enhanced specific strength, increased temperature tolerance, resistance to wear, and reduced density. Friction Stir Processing (FSP) is a solid-state processing method that has distinctive characteristics, including low heat generation, extensive material plastic flow, and a highly refined microstructure inside the stirred region. Additionally, FSP is effective in defect healing and reducing porosity. In order to investigate the impact of varying reinforcement percentages on the maximum tensile strength, a stir casting technique is used to fabricate an aluminium (AA8011) hybrid composite that is reinforced with titanium boride and zirconia at certain locations (2, 4, 6, 8). Furthermore, the influence of FSP on the surface properties of hybrid composites based on AA8011 was examined. An investigation was conducted to examine the impact of several process parameters in Friction Stir Processing (FSP), including tool rotation speed, tool linear velocity, and tool depth of penetration, on the refinement of grain size, as well as the mechanical and metallurgical characteristics. Revisions have shown enhancements in mechanical characteristics, namely tensile properties and hardness improvement, of the friction stir-processed composites. Additionally, the process parameters for the friction stir-processing of AA8011 hybrid composites have been improved. The incorporation of titanium boron and zirconia resulted in an increase in the hardness of the composite, as shown by a Rockwell hardness test. Taguchi analysis was used to optimise the process parameters in order to investigate the impact of friction stir processing on the tensile strength properties and hardness of AA8011+TiB2+ZrO2 composites. Rotation speed, reinforcement, and percent wt. were preferred. The taguchi technique was used to create the processing experiments, utilising the design of the experiment. The orthogonal array of the L9 statistical analysis is executed to optimize the process parameters. The optimal unification of process parameters and the substantial benefit of a single parameter on the responses were determined using the analysis of variance and signal-to-noise ratio approaches. The results revealed that volume and type of reinforcement are the most influential parameters for maximum tensile strength. Rotation speed, followed by the type of reinforcement, is the most influential parameter for maximum hardness. The optimal parameters were discovered to be capable of amplifying the mechanical behaviour of composites.