Mechanical Properties and Wear Resistance of 6061 Alloy Reinforced with a Hybrid of Al<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB> Fibers and SiC Whiskers

Abstract

The mechanical properties and wear resistance of 6061 alloy reinforced with Al2O3 fibers and a hybrid of Al2O3 fibers and SiC whiskers were investigated.The elastic modulus of T6 tempered Al2O3/6061 and Al2O3–SiC/6061 composites can be expressed as Ec\doteqdot140 VfAl2O3+68 and Ec\doteqdot140 VfAl2O3+180 VfSiC+68, respectively. The fiber arrangement coefficient α is found to be 0.7 for Al2O3 and 0.45 for SiC whisker.The wear resistance of Al2O3/6061 composites is inferior to that of SiC/6061 composites. The addition of small volume franctions of SiC whisker to Al2O3/6061 composites gives rise to a remarkable improvement of the wear resistance which is, on the contrary, superior to that of SiC/6061 composistes.