An investigation into the effects of graphite particles on the damping behavior of ZA-27 alloy composite material

The objective of present work is to investigate the effect of macroscopic graphite particles on damping behavior of ZA-27 alloy composites. Compo casting technique was used to prepare the composites, in which the graphite particles were used to reinforce ZA-27 alloy, in varying fractions in order to arrive at optimum graphite reinforcement for bearing applications and establish a correlation of experimental readings. The experimental method used was the cantilever technique with Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer to evaluate damping properties. Standard strips of size 60 mm × 10 mm × 1 mm thick were tested by cantilever method of vibration tests at various temperatures from ambient to 300 °C. It was observed that the damping capacity of the material increased with increasing temperature and fractions of graphite particles.