Investigation of mechanical properties of heat-treated A356/SiC composite fabricated through stir casting technique

In this paper, a study has been carried out to outline the impact of heat treatment of MMCs, on its microstructure, tensile properties, hardness, and the impact behaviour of A356/SiC cast MMCs. Mechanical stir casting techniques were used to fabricate MMC ingots in which SiC particles were mixed in the molten aluminum alloy by varying wt.% of 2, 4, and 6. The heat-treated aluminum-based MMCs were characterized by optical microscope, tensile strength , Brinell hardness, and impact strength experiments. The experimental results of the A356/SiC composite shows that the addition of SiC ceramic particles leads to a notable enhancement in the hardness, tensile, and impact strength compared to the base alloy. The heat treatment developed a great bonding between ceramic reinforcement and reduces the developed internal stresses in metal matrix aluminum alloy, which leads to 15.58% higher tensile strength and 10.25% impact strength, whereas reducing 6.5% hardness. Copyright (c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Advances in Materials and Mechanical Engineering. (ICAMME-2022).