Abrasive Assisted Electrochemical Machining of Al-B₄C Nanocomposite

Abstract:

Aluminium reinforced with SiC, Al₂O₃ and B₄C etc. possesses an attractive combination of properties such as high wear resistance, high strength to weight ratio and high specific stiffness. Among the various reinforced materials used for aluminium, B₄C has outperformed all others in terms of hardening effect. Particle size reduction of B₄C is found to have positive impact on the material hardness. In the view of physical properties, B₄C has less density than that of SiC and Al₂O₃, which makes it an attractive reinforcement for aluminium and its alloys for light weight applications. In this work, Al nano B₄C composite prepared by ultrasonic cavitation method was machined by Abrasive assisted electrochemical machining using cylindrical copper tool electrodes with SiC abrasive medium. In this paper, attempts have been made to model and optimize process parameters in Abrasive assisted Electro-Chemical Machining of Aluminium-Boron carbide nano composite. Optimization of process parameters is based on the statistical techniques using Response Surface Methodology with four independent input parameters such as voltage, current, abrasive concentration and feed rate were used to assess the process performance in terms of material removal rate and surface finish. The obtained results were compared with abrasive assisted electro chemical machining of Aluminium-Boron carbide micro composite and the effect of particle size on the process parameters was analyzed.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volume 787)
• Pages: 523-527
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.787.523
• Online since: August 2015
• Authors: K. Rajkumar*, Lakshmanan Poovazhgan, P. Saravanamuthukumar, S. Javed Syed Ibrahim, S. Santosh
• Keywords: Electrochemical Machining, Nano-Boron Carbide, Response Surface Methodology

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