Author : Amir.A.Abdelsalam, T.S.Mahmoud, A.A.El-Betar and A.M. El-Assal

In this study, A356/Al2O3 metal matrix nano composites (MMNCs) were fabricated using two techniques, typically, stir casting (SC) technique and a combination of stir casting and cooling slope casting (SC/CSC) techniques and their microstructures characteristics were compared. The A356 Al alloy was reinforced with Al2O3 nanoparticles having the average size of 50 nm. The effect of the volume fraction of the Al2O3 nanoparticles on the microstructures characteristics of A356/ Al2O3 MMNCs fabricated using the aforementioned techniques were evaluated. The microstructure of the A356/ Al2O3 MMNCs was also investigated using scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with attachments for energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. The results showed that the average grain size of samples fabricated using SC technique was lower than those fabricated using SC/CSC technique. However, the addition of water-cooling resulted in that the average grain size of samples fabricated using SC/CSC technique exhibited lower average size of the -Al grains in comparison with those fabricated without water-cooling.

Keywords: Metal Matrix Nano Composites, Stir casting, cooling slope casting, microstructures, nanoparticles.

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.5, No.6 (Dec-2015)