Experimental Investigation on Mechanical Properties of AA2195-based MMCs for Space Applications

Abstract

The modern Aluminium-Copper-Lithium (Al-Cu-li) based composites have a great demand in aerospace applications due to their lightweight, high strength, high stiffness, and superior mechanical properties. The present study explored the effect of reinforcements like graphite and boron carbide on the mechanical behaviour and microstructure of AA2195 composite The Medium Frequency Induction Furnace (MFIF) was used to fabricate the composites with two factors each at four levels ordered in Taguchi L16 orthogonal array. The microstructures revealed that the reinforcements were distributed uniformly throughout the composite. The elemental investigation observed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed that the formed intermetallic compounds (IMCs) helped in refining the microstructure and further increasing the mechanical properties. The composite fabricated at 8% boron carbide (B4C) and 6% graphite (Gr) exhibited better ultimate tensile strength, % elongation, and hardness as 190.74 MPa, 0.58, and 87.2VHN, respectively. The composite fabricated at 8 .