Investigation of aluminum-based mono and hybrid surface composites by incorporating SiC and graphene reinforcements using friction stir processing

The present investigation focuses on the synthesis of mono (AA5052/SiC and AA5052/graphene) and hybrid (AA5052/SiC/graphene) surface composites using friction stir processing (FSP). This work examines the synergistic effect of SiC and graphene on the fabricated surface composites. Macro/microstructure, microhardness, and wear test analysis were done on these samples, and the results were compared with the base material AA5052-H32. The microstructure analysis showed that the distribution of reinforcement particles in the aluminum matrix is made more uniform by adding hard SiC with graphene nanoparticles, which can reduce the occurrence of particle clustering and agglomeration. As a result, the smallest grain size of 11.2 µm and the highest microhardness obtained was 84.1 HV obtained in hybrid surface composites. Consequently, the hybrid surface composites obtained more improved wear properties than mono surface composites. Thus, the hybrid surface composites achieved the lowest average friction coefficient of 0.304.