Prashantha Kumar Hosamane Guruswamy

From the aspect of exploring the alternative lightweight composite material for the aerospace launch vehicle external fuel tank structural components, the current research work studies three different grades of Aluminium alloy reinforced with varying graphene weight percentages that are processed through powder metallurgy (P/M) route. The prepared green compacts composite ingots are subjected to microwave processing (Sintering), hot extruded, and solution treated (T6). The developed Nano-graphene reinforced composite is studied further for the strength–microstructural integrity. The nature of the graphene reinforcement and its chemical existence within the composite is further studied, and it is found that hot extruded solution treated (HEST) composite exhibited low levels of carbide (Al₄C₃) formations, as composites processed by microwaves. Further, the samples of different grades reinforced with varying graphene percentages are subjected to mechanical characterisation tests such as the tensile test and hardness. It is found that 2 wt% graphene reinforced composites exhibited enhanced yield strength and ultimate tensile strength. Microstructural studies and fracture morphology are studied, and it is proven that composite processed via the microwave method has exhibited good ductile behaviour and promising failure mechanisms at higher load levels.

In recent days, the demand for powder metallurgy components has increased due to unusual combination of properties. Carbon allotropes such as graphene and CNT are the novel material to enhance the properties of powder metallurgy component. However, processing of such materials is in infancy stage due lack of advance processing technique. This can be addressed through integration of several fabrication techniques to meet the industrial demands. The processing method and its important parameter will define the final property of the component. Such materials have found its applications in various fields like, sports, bio implants, aerospace and automobile sector.

Graphene is a new class of material in carbon group with strong sp2—hybridized 2D-sheet like nanomaterial. In order to make an effective utilization of their astounding properties, they are currently used in the form of reinforcements in various proportions in metals and its alloys to fabricate the nanocomposites. Graphene is incorporated in oil and grease at nano range that results in higher load-carrying capacity compared with that of raw grease and oils without additives, which shows that graphene possesses self-lubricating capacity. Graphene is a planar sheet-like structure (2D), with more contact surface area in the developed composites that can make them suitable for industrial applications with well-established tribological performance. The novelty of this work focuses on the role of graphene addition in enhancing the wear performance aluminum composites to replace the conventional materials by graphene composite combinations. The current chapter explains the processing and tribological performance of graphene-aluminum composites and its effect with various hybrid combinations of MWCNT/SiC/Al2O3. Dispersion of graphene is carried out through ultrasonic liquid processor followed by ball-milling aluminum powder. Thus prepared precursors are vacuum-pressed and microwave-sintered. Graphene in the nanocomposites has resulted in significantly improving the tribological properties, where it gives the wear resistance by creating a solid, lubricant layer between the sliding surfaces.

Graphene, no wonder has attracted a significant research interest due to its extensive physical properties at its single atomic thickness and 2D morphology. The current studies focus on the role of graphene in reducing the wear and frictional coefficient of Al 6061–graphene-reinforced metal–matrix composites (MMC’s). Reinforcement chosen is 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 wt% of graphene to investigate the self-lubricating property under dry wear condition and processed through the ultrasonic liquid processor. The dry frictional wear test was carried out using pin-on-disc tribometer to evaluate the effect of graphene content in the composites under various normal load (5, 10, 15 N) and disc sliding speed (0.4, 0.8, 1.2 m/s) conditions. The results show that there is a significant increase in the hardness and wear resistance and a reduction in the coefficient of friction (μ) values compared to pure alloys. Arithmetic mean surface roughness values (R_a), max profile peak (R_p) and max valley depth (R_v) are found to be comparatively lower than the pure alloy. Due to the tribological potential coupled with improved strength and surface roughness values, Al 6061–graphene composite are excellent candidates for all applications where it is subjected to Friction and wear.

As one of the most essential industrial and engineering materials, Aluminum alloy 6061 have been extensively used in automobile industries and many engineering applications due to its impending properties like low density, good structural rigidity, feasibility to incorporate and enhance the strength by addition of various reinforcing materials. The essential criteria in enhancing the properties without sacrificing the ductility is always challenging in Aluminum and its alloys based composites. In the recent years, enormous research has been carried on ceramic based and carbon based reinforcement materials used in Aluminum metal matrix composites. But the combination of both is never tried so far due to lack of processing methods. The current research work is carried out to process, synthesize and perform the characterization of Al 6061 matrix nanocomposites with Graphene of flake size 10 nm and SiC of particle size 10 μm as reinforcement combinations in various proportions (weight percentage) which are carried out through powder metallurgy (PM) approach. The powders are processed through ultrasonic liquid processing method and the mixtures were ball milled by adding SiC particles followed by uniaxial hot compaction. Thus prepared compacts are sintered (conventional and microwave) and mechanical properties like hardness, density are investigated as a function of Graphene and SiC concentrations (weight fraction). Relevant strengthening mechanism involved in the Al6061-Graphene-SiC composites in comparison with monolithic Al 6061 alloy were discussed.