Effect of Mold Vibration on Mechanical and Metallurgical Properties of Aluminum 6061 Alloy Casting
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2025-02-10
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Abstract
This study investigates the fabrication of AA6061 reinforced with TiO2 as
a composite additive to modify its mechanical and microstructural
properties. Also, the die vibration , pouring angle, and TiO2 addition were
adopted as process parameters. Taguchi method with L3x3 array was used
as a design of experiment approach . The levels of process parameters were
(0,10, and 100Hz ) as the die vibration rates, (0, 5%, and10%) TiO2 , and (
0, 45o , 90o ). Optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope
(SEM) equipped with EDS, and X-ray diffractometer (XRD) were used to
characterize the microstructure, chemical composition, and phase
composition of AA6061- TiO2 castings. Universal tensile test machine
(UTM), impact test machine, and Vickers hardness test (HV) were used to
evaluate the tensile strength, impact strength , and microhardness of
castings. The DOE approach analysis show that the most efficient
combination of casting parameters gave the highest ultimate tensile strength
and smallest grain size. The microstructure results showed that all castings
reveal the distinct dendritic structure with a decrease in grain size when
increasing the die vibration . The smallest grain size was(57.32 μm)
reported by the sample (S7) that prepared at the 100 Hz, 0°pouring angle,
and 10 wt.% TiO2. SEM images showed that the regularity of dispersive
particles increase when increasing the vibration. XRD analysis showed a
decrease in the peaks intensity when increasing the die vibration and TiO2
addition. Also, the tensile test and microhardness of sample S7 were 142.2
MPa, and 85.67 Hv this evidently indicated that the adding of TiO2 and
increasing the die vibration improve the mechanical properties of the
AA6061.