Experimental Investigation of the Mechanical Properties and Tribological Behaviour of Al6061 Enhanced by TiB2 Particles

Metal matrix composites are becoming more common in industrial applications due to their superior tribological and mechanical properties. In this work, titanium diboride (TiB2) particles with different weight percentages (1, 3 and 5%) were added to Al6061 using a stir-casting process. The hardness, tensile strength, and wear of Al6061-TiB2 composites were investigated. Each experiment was repeated three times to ensure repeatability, and an average was taken. In addition, an optical microscope and a scanning electron microscope were used to characterize the Al6061-TiB2 composites. The SEM examination shows that the TiB2 particles are distributed evenly throughout the Al6061 matrix. The results show that the hardness, strength, and wear resistance of Al6061-TiB2 composites increase as the weight percentage of TiB2 is increased. The most interesting thing to come out of the data is that adding a small amount of TiB2 particles increases the hardness of the composites much more than previous research has shown.