Abstract—Aluminium alloy materials found to the best alternative with its unique capacity of designing the materials to give required properties. Aluminium alloy Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) are gaining wide spread acceptance for automobile, industrial, and aerospace applications because of their low density, high strength and good structural rigidity. In the present work, an attempt is made to prepare and compare the mechanical and wear properties of Al6061-Graphite and Al6061-SiC composites. The composites were prepared using stir casting method in which amount of reinforcement is varied from 6-12% in steps of 3wt%. The prepared composites of Al6061-Graphite and Al6061-SiC are characterized by microstructural studies and hardness, density, and mechanical, tribological properties were evaluated as per the standards. The microphotographs of the composites revealed fairly uniform distribution of the particles in both Al6061-Graphite and Al6061-SiC composites with clustering at few places. The experimental densities were found to be lower than theoretical densities in all the composites. Micro-hardness of the Al6061-SiC composite found increased with increased filler content and where as Al6061- Graphite composite found decreased with increased filler content are found to be 98-151VHN and 98-76VHN respectively. The dispersed Graphite and SiC in Al6061 alloy contributed in enhancing the tensile strength of the composites. The wear resistance of the Al6061-SiC composite found decreased with increased filler content where as the wear resistance of the Al6061-Graphite composite found to decrease up to 6wt% but thereafter tends to increase.

Index Terms—Al6061, SiC, Graphite, Metal matrix composites, Mechanical properties

Cite: Prashant S N, Madev Nagaral and V Auradi, "Preparation and Evaluation of Mechanical and Wear Properties of Al6061 Reinforced With Graphite and SiC Particulate Metal Matrix Composites," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol.1, No.3, pp. 106-112, October 2012.