EXAMINING THE MECHANICAL AND TRIBOLOGICAL BEHAVIOR OF AL-SIC COMPOSITE DEVELOPED BY CENTRIFUGAL CASTING TECHNIQUE

The increasing interest in functionally graded materials for automobile, military, and aerospace structural applications in recent years is due to its admirable properties such as good resistance to thermal fluctuation, good formability, and good strength. This study investigates the tribological property of aluminum A356 composites reinforced with silicon carbide particles with varied weight-percents and particle sizes fabricated through centrifugal casting technique. Tribological, mechanical, and SEM analyses were carried out on fabricated composite samples, reinforced with SiCp of 7 µ and 15 µ particle sizes, respectively. The results indicated that the insertion of the reinforcement particles in the aluminum matrix improved the microstructural properties of the fabricated composites and enhanced their tribological properties. Furthermore, this study confirms that the size of the reinforcement particles influences the overall properties of aluminium metal matrix composites.