CHARACTERISATION, TESTING AND SOFTWARE ANALYSIS OF AL-WC NANO COMPOSITES

In the present study, Al-WC (0, 5, 10, 15% weight fractions) nano composite was developed with WC particles as the reinforcement and Al particles as the base metal. The WC (99.5%, 20μm) is mixed (0,5,10 15% in weight fractions) with Al powder (99.5%, 60μm) and milled separately for 45 h using high energy ball mill (Pulversitte 6, Fritsch-Germany,50 WC balls,10mm,b/p 20:1,300 rpm). Characterisation (every 9 h) is done using SEM (Hitachi, and SU1510-Japan), Zetasizer (Malvern, Nano ZS90 - UK) and AFM (XE 70, Park Systems - Korea).The particles reach the nano size after 45 h of milling. The raw powders are compacted (200,250,300kN), sintered (450°C) and furnace cooled (for 48 h) to prepare the specimens of various aspect ratios (0.3, 0.32, 0.36, 0.38, 0.4, 0.42). The Nano indentation (2nN, AFM, XE 70, Park Systems, Korea), non-destructive (Fallon Ultrasonics,100MHZ, FUI1050, Canada) and destructive testing (UTM,1MN,5mm/min,10 kN increments) are carried out on all preforms to evaluate mechanical (axial, hydrostatic, hoop stresses and strains), physical (density, acoustic impedance, hardness) and elastic (Young’s, shear, bulk modulus and Poisson ratio) properties of the composites and then analysed (graphical analysis), and the composite having the best properties ( Al-15WC, h/d 0.3,ρf 0.79) is identified. Then, its properties are fed into ANSYS Workbench software (Release14) and FEA analysis (Static structural,67500 nodes, Linear Solid185 type,38283 elements) is carried out on the piston (114.7mm³,1.83 kg), modelled using PRO-E software. The results show the substantial improvement of the properties of the Al-WC composites compared to the parent metal.