Experimental Evaluation of Al-Zn-Al2O3 Composite on Piston Analysis by CAE Tools

Abstract

Abstract Today’s automotive designers and material specialists regard lighter vehicles for less fuel consumption (economy and ecology) and higher safety to passengers. Metal matrix composites have been a large area of interest. Aluminium composite is potentially applied in automotive and aerospace industries, because it has a superior strength to weight ratio and is a light weight metal with high temperature resistance. Composites containing hard oxides and ceramics (such as alumina) are preferred for high wear resistance along with increased hardness. In this work, alumina and zinc are reinforced in Al-LM25 alloy through stir casting process, where alumina is varied 6% and 12% in Al-5%Zn. Various mechanical analyses were conducted and the effect of wear with different percentage of alumina reinforcement was studied. The resulting properties are imported in a piston, modelled using solid works, and analysed in ANSYS work bench. Imparting this new material for pistons could introduce deep design and improvements in engine operation of a vehicle.