ENHANCEMENT OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF ALLOY 61S BY REINFORCING NANO COMPOSITES

Abstract

During recent decades, a lot of interest had shown in the materials production with nano sized grains. Especially, the aluminum alloys and its composites are widely used for demanding structural applications due to combination of corrosion resistance, formability, weldability and, mechanical properties. The demand for toughness, higher strength and, strength and weight ratio of aluminum alloys for the structural application is ever growing owing to the increasing importance of achieving a long lifetime and cost effectiveness of the materials. However, in the present investigation of Alloy 61S (Aluminum Alloy-61S (Al-Mg-Si) and Aluminum alloy-61S+5wt%ZrB2)is subjected to micro-structure, tensile behavior,scanning electron micrography and, optical electron micrography was studied. Alloy 61S is used as a matrix material to increase its strength further by precipitation phenomenon. Alloy 61S+5wt%ZrB2 is used as matrix material and shows the superior mechanical properties due to a dispersion strengthening phenomenon. These materials were subjected to heat treatment conditions, namely normalizing, quenching, quenching + aging and, annealing. The Enhanced mechanical properties were observed in the aged condition because of its dislocation cell structure and dispersion strengthening. KEYWORDS:ALLOY 61S, Reinforcement, Nano Composites, Hall-Petch Equation, Mechanical Properties.