Synthesis and characterization of titanium carbide particulate reinforced AA6082 aluminium alloy composites via friction stir processing

Friction stir processing (FSP) has evolved as a novel solid state technique to fabricate aluminium matrix composites (AMCs) in the recent years. FSP technique was applied to synthesis AA6082/TiC AMCs in order to analyze the effect of TiC particles, its volume fraction on the microstructure, mechanical and the sliding wear behaviour. A single pass FSP was carried out using a tool with 1200 rpm rotational speed, whose travel speed of 60 mm/min and an axial force of 10 kN to produce the composite. AMCs with five different volume fractions (0, 6, 12, 18 and 24 vol.%) were synthesized. The microstructure of the AA6082/TiC AMCs was studied using optical and scanning electron microscopy. The microhardness and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) were measured and the sliding wear behaviour was evaluated using a pin-on-disc apparatus. Thus the results revealed that the TiC particles significantly influenced the area of the composite, dispersion, grain size of matrix, microhardness, UTS and sliding wear behaviour of the AA6082/TiC AMCs. With this the effect of TiC particles on fracture surface and worn surface is also reported in this paper.