Investigating the effect of the amount of reinforcement on the compressive strength of A380 aluminum alloy nanocomposite reinforced with silicon carbide nanoparticles

In this paper, the microstructure and compressive strength of A380 aluminum alloy were investigated by adding SiC nanoparticles. A380 aluminum powder and SiC nanoparticles with values (0, 0.5, 1, and 2% by weight) were ground in a planetary ball mill in an argon atmosphere for 10 hours. The ball weight ratio to powder was 10:1, and the rotation speed was set at 250 rpm. After the milling process, a hot press produced the samples. The products were produced through a graphite mold with a 15 mm diameter at a 10 °C heating rate per minute to a final 510 °C sintering temperature with a 30 minutes holding time under vacuum conditions. In addition, a pressure of 50 MPa was placed in the hot press machine. The microstructure and formed phases of the product samples were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Moreover, a universal testing machine (UTM) was used to test the compressive strength. It was observed that agglomeration occurred with the increase of SiC nanoparticles, which decreased the mechanical properties. The samples' best density and compressive strength were related to aluminum alloy with 0.5% by weight of SiC nanoparticle. Furthermore, due to the low sintering temperature, SiC decomposition did not occur. Besides, the intermetallic compound of aluminum with carbon or aluminum with silicon was not formed.