Optimization of Process Parameters in Friction Stir Processing for the Development of Polymer-Derived Aluminum Matrix Composites

Friction stir processing (FSP) is a solid-state process to develop metal matrix composite. It is a severe plastic deformation process that is well capable of fracturing the reinforced particles and distributing them into the matrix material. But the process parameter in FSP is always a critical part to get a defect-free sample. In this work, an effort has been made to optimize the process parameters for different volume fractions of reinforcement. For the development of the Aluminum-based composite, a special kind of reinforcement called PMHS (polymethylhydrosiloxane) was used. PMHS comes under the category of polymer-derived ceramic (PDC) materials which on heating at a particular temperature for a certain time converts into ceramic. For the current investigation, different amounts of reinforcement were incorporated into the commercially pure (CP) Aluminium metal. First, the processing was done keeping the parameters unchanged for different volume fractions of reinforcement and then the processed samples were characterized. It was found that, for the same processing parameters, the compatibility of mixing was not satisfactory for all the experiments with varying volume fractions. Therefore, it is inferred that the processing parameters should be different and need to be optimized separately for varying volume fraction experiments.