Effect of B4C Whisker on Mechanical Properties and Micro Hardness of AL 6061/SiC Metal Matrix Composite

Mechanical properties such as strength, stiffness, toughness and micro hardness of metal matrix composites are finding challenging applications in aerospace, military and automobile industry. Among all metal matrix composites aluminium metal matrix has been the best explored metal for the development of metal matrix composites. The mechanical properties of metal matrix composites have been improved by reinforcing the whiskers to the Aluminium metal matrix. In the present study, efforts were made to fabricate metal matrix composites by keeping the composition of Al 6061 matrix constant and varying the reinforcement ratios of SiC viz. 5%, 10% and 15 % by weight to the matrix with or without addition of 2 wt% of B₄C. The samples were prepared as per ASTM E08 standard size and tested under tensile loading and micro hardness for investigating the tensile strength, yield strength, and micro hardness. The test results show that with addition of B₄C whisker to the Al 6061/SiC metal matrix composite gives an increment in tensile strength by 13.95%, yield strength by 10.54% and micro hardness by 4.61% increment.