Experimental investigation on the influence of reinforcement and precipitation hardening parameters of AA 6061-SiCp composites

Abstract

The presence of discrete reinforcement particles in the matrix of the discontinuously reinforced metal matrix composites considerably alters the matrix microstructure and hence the precipitation hardening kinetics.Therefore precipitation hardening schedule of aluminium alloys are not applicable to aluminium matrix based discontinuously reinforced composites. In the present work, an attempt has been made to systematically study the effects of reinforcement percentage and precipitation hardening parameters on the behaviour of AA 6061-SiCp composites. The result reveals that AA 6061-SiCp composites demand longer solutionizing time (3 h) compared to unreinforced, AA 6061 alloy (1 h). Moreover, successively during artificial aging, the time required to attain peak aging condition is shorter and almost same for AA 6061-SiCp composites irrespective of percentage of reinforcement.