Correlation of microstructre, mechanical properties & wear resistance of A356/MWCNTs composites

Incorporation of MWCNTs in Al-alloy matrix can lead to the production of low cost components with improved hardness, strength, and wear resistance material. Such superior material can find applications in several automotive components e.g. pistons, cylinder liners and connecting rods. Many investigations have developed different techniques to produce A356 matrix composite reinforcement with MWCNTs. They studied the effect of adding different percentages of reinforcement on the mechanical properties, microstrucral characteristics and, or wear resistance of the produced composites. In the present study, an attempt has induced to correlate the effect of different MWCNTs percentages additions on these features of A356 hypoeutectic Al-Si nanocomposites, developed via the semi-solid route stir casting technique. The performed tests included; OM, SEM, EDX and XRD analysis, tensile test, BHN test and dry sliding pin-on-disk wear test. The obtained results indicated that the well uniformly dispersed MWCNTs into the melt had resulted in homogenous distribution and limited agglomeration of CNTs in the matrices of the produced A356/MWCNTs nanocomposites. Subsequentially, a noticed improvement in mechanical properties and superior wear resistance. © 2016 Cairo University. All rights reserved.