Open AccessEffect of Sic Reinforcement on Mechanical And Electrical Properties of Magnesium-Aluminium (Mg-Al) Alloy Matrix Composite
Author(s) -
Mfon Udo,
P.O. Babalola,
Sunday A. Afolalu,
Samson O. Ongbali,
Friday Apeh,
Olamilekan Olayiwola-Busari
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/1107/1/012207
Subject(s) - materials science , ultimate tensile strength , composite material , silicon carbide , composite number , flexural strength , alloy , aluminium , reinforcement , tensile testing , aluminium alloy , universal testing machine , casting , magnesium alloy
Reinforcing a material with another material or composite formation has become a major technique of material formation. Reinforcement imparts new, and in many cases, improved values of properties on the material being reinforced. In this work an alloy of magnesium and aluminium (magnalium) was reinforced with different weight percentages (2.5, 5, 7.5, 10 wt %) of silicon carbide (SiC) of 600 grit size, making use of stir casting method. The specimens so developed were subjected to various mechanical tests such as hardness, tensile and flexural tests as well as electrical conductivity test. The mechanical properties’ tests were conducted using TQ SM1000 Universal Testing Machine using the provision made for each test on the machine while the electrical conductivity test was carried out using an electrical circuit specially designed for the test. It was found out that the samples that were reinforced with SiC had better mechanical properties than the samples that were not reinforced but the conductance values of the reinforced samples were lower than those of samples that were not reinforced. It was also found out that the mechanical properties increased directly proportional to the weight percentage of the SiC particles present in the composite such that the specimen with 10 wt% SiC recorded the highest values of all the mechanical properties that were tested for. For the composite with this wt% reinforcement, the hardness number value was 19.72, tensile strength value, 6328.4 MPa, and flexural strength value, 500.02 MPa but its electrical conductance was 22 S lower than the value of electrical conductance for the sample that was not reinforced at all which was 27.41228 S.