Micro-Mechanical Finite Element Analysis on Mechanical Behavior of EN31 Steel-Based Metal Matrix Composite

An EN31 steel-based metal matrix composite material has been developed with different reinforcements weight percentages by using ultrasonic vibration effect. In the present investigation, three material powders, namely primary reinforced element zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA), secondary reinforced element chromite (FeCr2O4) and dissolving reinforcement element nickel (Ni), have been utilized as the reinforcement particles. Further, the weight percentage of primary reinforced element zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) was varied between 1.25 and 10wt.% during the development of composite material. Further, 2.5wt.% of secondary reinforced particle (chromite (FeCr2O4)) and dissolving reinforced particle nickel (Ni) was kept constant. The dissolving reinforced particle nickel (Ni) improved the wettability of ZTA and FeCr2O4 particles. The microstructural observation revealed that the ultrasonic vibration effect has fairly distributed the reinforcement particles in the matrix material. Further, the heat treatment process has also been performed on the developed composite material samples. The higher tensile strength has been observed for the composite composition of EN31/6.25 wt. % ZTA/2.5 wt. %FeCr2O4/2.5 wt. % Ni (for heat-treated (890.34 MPa) and without heat-treated (804.78 MPa)). Further, the heat treatment enhanced the EN31 matrix material tensile strength by about 44.06%. In addition, a representative volume element (RVE)-based finite element analysis (FEA) model has been developed for the heat-treated EN31/6.25 wt. % ZTA/2.5 wt. % FeCr2O4 metal matrix composite sample to analyze its tensile deformation behavior. Further, the results revealed that the matrix–reinforcement interfaces exhibited more stress (904.48 MPa) than only matrix material.