THE DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SILICON CARBIDE REINFORCED ALUMINIUM ALLOY LM12 METAL MATRIX COMPOSITE

Metal matrix composites of aluminium alloy with silicon carbide reinforcement are useful in aerospace, automobile and general engineering industries because of their favourable microstructure and mechanical behavior. Composites of aluminium alloy LM12 and silicon carbide were fabricated by using stir casting technique. In hardness and tensile test conducted, a significant improvement in material strength is observed in aluminium alloy LM12 metal matrix composite as compared to the alloy without silicon carbide addition. Cast base metal and its composites were found to fail predominantly in brittle mode during the tension test. During, casting silicon carbide, the content composite was fixed at 10 and 15 Weight, after casting a microscopic examination is conducted, and witnessed a uniform distribution of silicon carbide in aluminium alloy LM12. Casting technique and characterization of aluminium alloy LM 12 and silicon carbide metal matrix composite (MMC) are described in the present paper.