Experimental Investigations on Microstructure, Properties and Workability Behavior of Zinc Oxide Reinforced Al–Si–Mg Matrix Composites.

Al-Si based alloy matrix composites are now broadly utilized by the industrial sectors like automobile, structural, aerospace and more practical industrial applications due to its noncompetitive economy range, good mechanical properties and less density. In order to widen its applications, it is very significant to improve its mechanical and workability behavior. So, in this work, an effort has been taken to develop a ZnO microparticles (3, 4.5 & 6 %) reinforced with Al-Si-Mg (AA6061) alloy by stir casting route.Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction analysis (X-RD) were employed for characterization studies of the composites. Tensile and hardness of the composites are investigated, compared and analyzed its effects. Another novel finding of the work is determining the workability behavior of the prepared samples with aspect ratio of 1 by incremental compressive loading of 25 kN through cold upsetting technique. For all developed samples, true axial stress (σ_z), hoop stress (σ_ө), hydrostatic stress (σ_m), effective stress (σ_eff), formability stress index (β) and stress ratio parameters [(σ_z/σ_eff), (σ_ө/σ_eff), (σ_m/σ_eff)] were determined and the results are correlated with the axial strain (ε_z). The results clearly infers that increasing weight contributions of ZnO particles increase the mechanical properties, all the stresses and stress ratio parameters of the composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]