STUDIES ON MECHANICAL, WEAR AND CORROSION PROPERTIES OF Al6061-BERYL-CERIUM OXIDE HYBRID METAL MATRIX COMPOSITES

The present work mainly investigates the wear behavior and corrosion resistance properties of Al6061/Beryl/Ceo2 hybrid metal matrix composites.Al6061/Beryl/Ce02 hybrid MMCs containing four different wt% (6, 8, 10, 12%) of beryl and keeping 0.2 wt% of cerium oxide constant have been fabricated by using a liquid metallurgy (stir casting) method. The tensile test and hardness test was done according to ASTM standards and a dry sliding wear tests were performed using a Pin-on disc wear testing machine on both composites and a matrix alloys over a load range of 4.905N-19.62N, sliding velocity of 1.66m/s and for various sliding distance of 1-6km, finally corrosion test was done by dipping a sample in 1Molar HCL solution for a duration of 96hrs with increments of 24hrs. The hybrid metal matrix composites was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to verify the uniform distribution of Beryl/Ceo2 particles in Al 6061. Further it was observed from the experimental results that the specific wear rate and the corrosion of the composite decreases with the increase in Beryl/Ceo2 particles. The best results of minimum wear rate and minimum corrosion rate was obtained at 12% weight fraction of Beryl and 02% weight fraction of Ceo2.