Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 9, No.
3, September 2019 1
Effect of Precipitation Hardening on Tensile,
Fatigue and Fracture Toughness Behaviour of
8011 Al/ 15%SiCp Metal Matrix Composite
V. Vembu* and G. Ganesan 
Abstract--- In this investigation, the effect of precipitation
hardening on tensile, fatigue and fracture toughness
behaviour of 8011 Al/ 15%SiCp composites has been studied.
The composites were manufactured through stir casting
method. Cast ingots of the composites were hot extruded at
5000 C. The composite samples were solution heat-treated at
530 0 C for 3 h and quenched in cold water. The aging
temperature were 130 0 C, 150 0 C, 170 0 C, 190 0 C, and
210 0 C for aging duration of 1,3,5,7 and 9 hrs respectively.
The mechanical properties measured included: tensile
strength, fatigue strength and fracture toughness values. The
composites produced exhibited maximum mechanical
properties at peak aged condition. These increases in
mechanical properties during aging are attributed to the
formation of coherent and uniform distribution SiC particles
in the aluminium matrix composites. It was also observed that
thermal modification plays an important role in retaining the
ductility of composites. This result shows that a substantial
improvement in mechanical properties has been achieved in
the reinforced metal matrices produced after age-hardening.
Keywords--- 8011Aluninum Matrix Composite, Extrusion,
Aging Behaviour, Tensile Strength, Micro Hardness, Response
Surface Methodology (RSM).
I. INTRODUCTION
M ETAL matrix composites synthesized by incorporating
hard ceramic particles like silicon carbide (SiC) in to
aluminium alloys achieve good mechanical properties. These
composites are both light weight and show good hardness
property which qualifies it as structural material especially for
wear resistant and weight critical application. Such application
motivates researchers to study the aging behaviour of this
category of metal matrix composites [1].
The age hardening characteristics of an alloy are generally
modified by the introduction of reinforcement. These
modifications are due to the manufacturing process, the
reactivity between the reinforcement and matrix, the size, the
morphology and the volume fraction reinforcement [2]. A
great deal of research has been carried out in the past to
develop and improved aluminium based composites with the
V. Vembu*, Assistant Professor, Department of Manufacturing
Engineering, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamilnadu, India.
E-mail: vembu_vs@rediffmail.com
Dr.G. Ganesan, Professor, Department of Manufacturing Engineering,
Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamilnadu, India.
DOI:10.9756/BIJIEMS.9030
ISSN 2277-5056 | © 2019 Bonfring
aim of achieving better mechanical properties.
In general many techniques have been developed to
fabricate the SiC particle reinforced aluminium alloy
composite, including casting, powder metallurgy, pressure
infiltration, and spray deposition. Among all the fabrication
method, the stir casting technique is attractive because it offers
uniform distribution reinforcement, flexibility and
applicability to large quantity production [3]. These
composites are the typical candidates for engineering
application in aerospace, military, and civil manufacturing
industry.
Donne et al [4] studied the age hardening behaviour of a
30 wt% SiCp/Al composite and found that the aging response
was very rapid, in that order only 1h aging at 120°C, 45% of
the peak tensile strength and 69% of the peak hardness were
attained, compared to the un-reinforced alloy.
Kaynak and Boylu completed [7] a comparative study of
the fatigue behavior of squeeze casted SiCp reinforced
aluminum composite specimens versus the matrix aluminum
alloy containing 12%SiC. They considered three different
weight percentages of SiC particulates (5, 10, and 15%) in the
size range of 40-60µm and determined that fatigue resistance
improved with increasing content of SiC particulates. SiC
particulates were found to improve fatigue resistance mainly
by acting as barriers to cracks and or deflecting the growth
plane of cracks resulting in decreased crack propagation rates.
M.Manoharan and J.J Lewandowski have investigated
mode Ι and mode ΙΙΙ fracture toughness in a combined mode
of a Al2O3 particulate reinforced 6061 Al alloy with a 3-point
bend test and have concluded that the mode ΙΙΙ components to
the system seems to increase the amount of redundant work
during fracture without affecting the critical fracture criterion.
The fracture in the composite occurs by the fracture of the
alumina reinforcement for all loading condition.
With extensive data available on the heat treatment of
8011 Al alloys with conventional alloying elements, no much
is documented on the age hardening characteristics of this
alloy particularly with silicon carbide reinforcement. Hence,
the need for research in this area is justified. The objective of
this present research therefore is to study the aging hardening
characteristics of 15% SiCp/8011 Al particulate composites.
II. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
8011 aluminium alloy was used as the metal matrix and
SiC particles as the reinforcement. The metal matrix consists
of (in weight percentage) 0.625Si, 0.725Fe, 0.007Cu,
Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 9, No. 3, September 2019
0.003Mn, 0.002Mg, 0.013Ti, 0.001Cr, 0.002Zn and rest being
aluminium. The density of the Al alloy is 2.7 g/cm3. The
reinforcement was of the abrasive grade in the size 23µm. The
density of the SiC is 2.55 g/ cm3. 8011 aluminium alloy with
15% silicon carbide particles composites were prepared in an
induction furnace under an argon gas protective atmosphere
by melt stirring casting technique. The melt was cast in to a
permanent iron die, to obtain ingots of 35mm diameter and
70mm height after the feeder head was removed. The
cylindrical ingots were machined down to 30mm diameter,
and then hot extruded in four stages to rod of 16mm diameter
and about 600mm length using conical shaped dies. The
forming process was performed at 500°C. During the
extrusion process the punch speed was 0.01 m/s and graphite
based high temperature lubricant was used. The extruded rods
were solution heat treated for (1-5) hour at 530°C followed by
cold water quenching to room temperature. Then the rods
were artificial aging at different temperature (130°C to 210°C)
over time period for (1-9) hours. The hardness measurements
were performed using a micro hardness tester with a load of
500 kgf. Hardness values were averaged over three
measurements taken at different points on the cross-section.
The variation of hardness with aging time for different aging
conditions was investigated.
Tensile test specimens were prepared according to ASTM-
E8M standard. The length and diameter of the gage were
45mm and 9mm respectively. Tensile tests were conducted
using a universal testing machine.
Fracture toughness test specimens were prepared by
machining of the extruded block according to ASTM-E 606
standard. Fracture toughnes tests were performed on a fully
automated, closed loop, servo hydraulic structural test
machine (INSTRON: Model 8801) equipped with a 100KN
load cell. The applied cycle was tensile and compression
cycle(R=1). The maximum stress of each cycle and the
number of cycles at which the failure occurred were recorded.
Fig. 1: Dimension of the Compact Tension Specimen
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2
Fracture Toughness
Fracture toughness is an indication of the amount of stress
required to propagate a preexisting flaw. It is a very important
material property since the occurrence of flaws is not
completely avoidable in the processing, fabrication, or service
of a material/component. Flaws may appear as cracks, voids,
metallurgical inclusions, weld defects, design discontinuities,
or some combination thereof. Since engineers can never be
totally sure that a material is flaw free, it is common practice
to assume that a flaw of some chosen size will be present in
some number of components and use the linear elastic fracture
mechanics (LEFM) approach to design critical components.
This approach uses the flaw size and features, component
geometry, loading conditions and the material property called
fracture toughness to evaluate the ability of a component
containing a flaw to resist fracture
By selecting a small ratio of specimen dimensions, B/W,
the effect of a through the thickness distribution of residual
stresses acting perpendicular to the direction of crack growth
can be reduced. According to the ASTM standard E399, if the
following relation holds true, plain-strain condition can be
achieved:
B ≥ 2.5 (KIC / σys) 2 (1)
In this relation, KQ refers to the conditional fracture
toughness, σys refers to the material yield strength and B refers
to the specimen thickness. Additionally the a/w value should
be equal to 0.45 where a refers to crack length and „w‟ refers
to width of the specimen. Before plane-strain fracture
toughness tests, the fatigue cracking tests were carried out in
order to insert a fatigue pre-crack in the specimen. All tests
were carried out on a servo-electric Instron dynamic testing
machine as shown in fig.1 and the experiments were carried
out at a stress ratio of R=0.1 using a frequency of 15 Hz.
Fracture toughness (KQ) is estimated using the expressions (2)
and (3) for (CT) specimen.
𝑃𝑄 𝑎
KQ = 1 𝑥𝑓 (2)
𝑤
𝐵𝑊 2
𝑎 𝑎 𝑎 2 𝑎 3 𝑎 4
𝑎 2+ 0.886+4.64 −13.32 +14.72 −5.6
𝑤 𝑤 𝑤 𝑤 𝑤
𝑓 = 3 (3)
𝑤 𝑎
1− 2
𝑤
A number of micro cracks generate from the early stage of
loading at the tips of the notch introduced and also of the pre-
existing pores. The further loading leads to the extension and
widening of micro cracks. Finally, the failure occurs when
these micro cracks join together to make a macroscopic crack
and form a fracture path.
Sample tests for micro structural examinations were
prepared following standard procedure of grinding and
polishing by etching in keller‟s reagent. Optical micros copies
were performed to evaluate the distribution of SiC particles.
The fracture surface of the composite was also examined using
SEM. Samples for SEM observation was obtained from the
failed specimens by sectioning parallel to the fracture surface.
Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 9, No. 3, September 2019 3

III. RESULTS & DISCUSSION the formation of the: G.P zone and ø” phase while the peak
aged stage (5hour at 170°C ) hardness is attributed to the
3.1. Effect of Solutionzing Time
formation of the ø‟ phase. The decrease in the hardness starts
The effect of solution zing time on the precipitation with the formation of the stable ø phase in over aged condition
behaviour of the 8011 Al/15% SiCp composite were subjected (9 hour at210°C).
to solution zing at 5300C over time period for 1-5 hours. The
specimens were then brought down to room temperature by
quenching in water. The specimens were tested for micro
hardness and the results are presented in fig (2). From the
results it is observed that the micro hardness of the specimen
subject to 3 hour solution zing is superior than to those
subjected to 1 hour 2 hour solution zing. Moreover, it is also
seen that solution zing time of 4 hour and 5 hour does not
result in appreciable improvement in the hardness compared to
hardness achieved for 3 hours solution zing. Hence, a solution
zing time of 3 hours is inferred as an optimum time for 8011
Al/15%SiCp composites. Because of the number of solute
atoms is more, greater will be the local distortion in the lattice
and hence more will be the resistance to the moving
dislocation. This will increase the micro hardness. The
solution zing at 5 hours, the solute atoms (such as silicon,
manganese, etc.) forming substitution al solid solution with
Fig.3: Effect of Aging Time on Micro Hardness
iron produce spherical distortion in the lattice. This will
decrease in the micro hardness. 3.3. Tensile Properties
The under aged condition 1hour at 130°C, the tensile
70 strength 8011Al/15%SiCp composite is increased from
60
139Mpa to 167Mpa as shown in fig.(4) & table(1) . This may
due to presence of harder SiC particles, which restrict plastic
Micro hardness

50 deformation of the matrix with 15% volume fraction SiC

40 particle, more load was transferred for plastic deformation due
to constraint by SiC particle, which also resulted in a higher
30 tensile strength of the composite.
20
The peak aged condition 5hour at 170°C, the tensile
10 strength increased from 167Mpa to 265 Mpa as shown in
fig.(4) & table(1). From this value, it is inferred that the tensile
0
strength of the composites are greater than those of the
1 2 3 4 5
aluminium base alloy. Because of the improvement in ductility
Solutionzing time in hour of composites can be attributed to couple effect of numerous
small Si particles due to growth restriction and thermal
Fig.2: Effect of Solutionzing Time on Micro Hardness modification during the heat treatment.

3.2. Micro Hardness of the Composites as a Function of Aging The over aged condition 9 hour at210°C, the tensile
Time strength decreased from265Mpa to 197Mpa fig.(4) & table(1).
Whereas ageing at higher temperatures lead to softening and
In this paper the effect of aging temperature and time on the ductility also decreased with increasing aging time and
the precipitation process has been studied. The sequence of temperature [12].
operations is involved are solution zing at 5300C for 3 hours
quenching and artificially aging at different temperatures Table 1: Tensile Properties of Composite Material
(1300C to 2100C) over time period for 1-9 hours. The Sl. Material Yield Tensile % Micro
specimens were then tested for micro hardness and the results No description Strength strength Elongation Hardness
were presented in fig.3. (Mpa) (Mpa)
1. 8011 Al 125 139 13 41
From the results it is found that the micro hardness of the 2. 8011 145 167 4.8 58
specimen subject to 5 hours aging time is superior than to Al/15%
those subjected to 1 hour to 4 hours aging time. Moreover, it is SiCp UA
also seen that aging time of 6 hours to 9 hours does not result 3. 8011 229 265 6.2 67
in appreciable improvement in the hardness compared to Al/15%
hardness achieved for 5hours aging time. Hence, aging time of SiCp PA
5 hours is inferred to be optimum for 8011Al/15%SiCp 4. 8011 169 197 9.1 57
composites [8]. So the increase of the hardness of the Al/15%
composite at under aged stage(1hour at 130°C) is attributed to SiCp OA

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Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 9, No. 3, September 2019
Fig.4: Tensile Properties of the Composites
3.4. Fatigue Behaviour of Composites
Fig. 5: Variation of Fatigue Strength with Number of Cycles
for Al Alloy
Many of the potential application for the composites
require high resistance to cyclic loading, and several fatigue
studies in MMCs have been reported. In the present work,
fatigue test were conducted by applying tension-compression
cyclic loading. The results of these tests are shown in fig.5 for
un reinforced alloy. Since aluminium and most of its alloys do
not show a constant fatigue strength, but show continually
decreasing fatigue strength with increasing number of cycles,
the fatigue strength is defined as the strength at 105 cycles.
Accordingly, the fatigue strength of the aluminium alloy is72
Mpa [14].
Fig.6: Fatigue Properties of the Composites with 15% Volume
Fraction of SiC Particles After Heat Treatment
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4
In the under aged condition 1hour at 130°C, the fatigue
strength value for the 8011Al/15 vol. % SiCp composites were
90.2Mpa respectively as shown in fig. 6. From this value, it is
inferred that the fatigue strength was generally better for the
composite than unreinforced alloy. The under aging of
composite slightly improve the fatigue strength. To explain the
enhancement achieved in the fatigue strength of the
composites, extensive test under either stress or strain
controlled condition would be need [15].
In the peak aged condition 5hour at 170°C, the fatigue
strength value for the 8011Al/ 15 vol. % SiCp composites
were 136.1Mpa respectively as shown in fig. 6. From this
value, it is inferred that the fatigue strength of the composites
are greater than those of the aluminium alloy. It is due to the
hardening arising from the load transfer between the
plastically deforming aluminium alloy metal matrix and the
hard elastically deforming silicon carbide particle
reinforcement [16].
In over aged condition 9 hour at210°, the fatigue strength
value for the 8011Al/ 15 vol. % SiCp composites were
95.1Mpa respectively as shown in fig 6. The fatigue strength
decreased compare than peak aged condition. The inferior
fatigue resistance of this composite may attributed to low
crack initiation resistance due to interface de-bonding between
SiC particles and the matrix [17].
3.5 Fracture Toughness
The load versus crack opening displacement (COD) curves
of the composites as shown (Fig7). Fracture of the composite
is unexpected. When the load increases to the maximum (point
in fig.7) the main crack nucleation and growth are
instantaneous then the composite fractures completely and its
fracture energy is very small. However, fracture energy of the
composite is much larger and its fracture mode has been
essentially changed.
Fig.7: Load displacement curve of 8011 Al/15% SiC
composites
Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 9, No. 3, September 2019 5

Fig. 8: Effect of Artificial aging Treatment on the Fracture

Toughness of the Composites Fig. 9: Fracture Surfaces of the Composites after Tensile
Aging at low temperature and time this improves the Testing and aging for 1h with Volume Fraction SiC Particle
fracture toughness at under aged and peak aged stage. Fig(8) 15%, Respectively
give an important idea to improve the fracture toughness of The peak aged condition 5hour at 170°C, The fracture
15%SiCp/Al alloy composites: controlling microstructures. surface of composites revealed the coexistence of ductile and
Generally, SiC particle are introduced into the matrix to cleavage fracture as shown in fig(10). The SEM image of
improve the elastic modulus, wear resistance and yield stress 8011 Al /15% SiC composite shown shallow dimples as well
with the expense of the fracture toughness. Since the as ductile shear bands indicating sufficient amount of ductility
constituents are generally formed from Fe and Si impurities retained in the composite. It was observed that with increase in
with the Al alloy matrix and other alloying elements, the amount of SiC particles, the size and depth of dimples
purification of the Al alloy matrix (decreasing the contents of decreases. The numerous small dimples are nucleated by large
Fe and Si impurities) can decrease the volume fraction of the number of closely spaced particles in the SiC network in 8011
constituents, and improve the fracture toughness of the Al /15% SiC composite
composites. So the proper heat treatment can control the
volume fraction and size of precipitates, and thus, avoid the
low fracture toughness zone around the under aged and peak
aged stage.
In the over aged condition, the nucleation rate and the
diffusion velocity of the solute atoms increase, thus accelerate
the aging hardening process, which inevitably accelerates the
decreasing the fracture toughness. At the same time, solute
atoms have a high degree of saturation at a high aging
temperature.
Table 2: The Result of Plane Strain Fracture Toughness Test
Composites PQ σQ(Mp P(ma P(ma KQ(MPam
1/2
material (N) a) x) x) / )
(N) PQ
8011 Al/15%SiCp 279 182 282 1.0 15.09
(UA) 5 0 1
8011Al/15%SiCp( 306 270 312 1.0 17.1
Fig.10: Fracture surfaces of the Composites after Tensile
PA) 0 0 2
Testing and Aging for 5h with volume Fraction SiC Particle
8011Al/15%SiCp( 251 195 258 1.0 16.1
15%, Respectively
OA) 0 2 3
The over aged condition 9 hour at210°C, Therefore, the
3.6. Fracture Surface decrease of tensile strength would be induced by the
The under aged condition 1hour at 130°C, the fracture significant agglomeration of SiC particle and the presence of
surface of composites reveal two operating fracture fractured particulates as well as some interfacial de-bonding as
mechanisms: micro-void formation and SiC particle cracking shown in fig(11).
as shown Fig(9)

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Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 9, No. 3, September 2019 6

zone around the peak-aged stage. The fracture

toughness decrease as the high aging time and
temperature.
5. SEM analysis of the fractures surfaces showed
fractured particles, surrounded by ductile regions and
decohesion at the matrix-particle interfaces. Fracture
of the particles mainly occurred in the 8011aluminum
reinforced with 15% vol of SiC composites.

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