Effect of graphene oxide reinforcement on the ballistic properties of Al6061-GO nanocomposite

In this paper, the effect of graphene oxide (GO) nano-plates on the ballistic properties and energy absorption of Al6061 aluminum matrix composites produced by stir casting and hot rolling was investigated. The Al6061-Go nano-composites were fabricated by mixing GO nano-plates with weight percentages of 0.0, 0.2, 0.5 and 0.8, in the molten aluminum. Then, hot rolling was carried out at 530 °C on the cast samples. Mechanical behavior of nano-composites was investigated by performing quasi-static tensile tests. The perforation tests on the Al6061-GO plates, with the dimension of 60604.2 mm, was carried out using flat head projectiles with the aspect ratio of L/d >3, at the speeds of 100-300 m/s. The initial and residual velocity of projectiles was measured through 24 experiments, and the ballistic limit velocity was calculated for the fabricated nano-composites. The toughness, the fracture mode and energy absorption of the samples, were evaluated through the tensile and perforation tests, respectively. The results showed that by adding GO nano-plates, the ballistic limit velocity of the composite specimens improves by 24 % with respect to the base alloy. Also, the energy absorption of composite specimens in quasi-static and impact loading was respectively ameliorated by 116 % and 107 %. These results indicated that GO nano-plates are very effective on the energy absorption of 6061 aluminum alloy.