Experimental and Finite Element Analysis of Fracture Toughness on Al/SiCp MMCs in Different Conditions

Aluminum alloy and 6% volume fraction SiCp MMCs have been fabricated by using stir casting at different pouring temperature, cast with permanent. In this present study, mechanical properties (i.e.) Fracture toughness, Tensile and Hardness properties were studied. The Fracture toughness, hardness and tensile strength of the composites are higher than the best processing temperature in this study seems to be 750°C. Finite element (FE) simulations for the proposed 3 point bend (3PB) geometry was carried out using ANSYS software package (v13) to compute KI with quarter-point crack-tip elements was used, which results correlate with experimental values. The predicted results were in good agreement with the experimental values. The observation of SEM micrographs shows homogenous distribution of the reinforcement particles in the cast composite.