The Synthesis and Characterization of Al2024-SiC Composite Material

The synthesis of Al2024-SiCp composite materials has been carried out using powder metallurgy technique. Al2024 and SiC were mixed according to volume fraction. The following mixture of Al2024-SiC was used, (95:5, 90:10, 85:15, 80:20, 75:25). The mixtures were cold compacted at a pressed of 3.5 ton/cm2, thermally treated at 550, 650 and 750 oC for two hours, and the quenched in water, followed by aging at 185 oC for 5 hours. The objective of this research is to investigate the effect of heating temperature and of variation in SiC additive in the synthesis of Al2024-SiC composite on the phase formation, hardness and density of the material. Phase identification analysis yield several diffraction peaks at (111), (200), (220), and (311) reflection planes. It was observed increasing heating temperature in the range of 550 oC to 750 oC and dopant SiC additive, will increase hardness and density. Hardness increases from 183.3-257.5 Hv, and density increases from 2.547-2.691 g/cm3