Fabrication of Al-Si/Mg2Si in-situ composite by friction stir processing

Al/Mg2Si in-situ cast composites are very popular in Al casting industries, but they suffer low toughness due to very coarse Mg2Si particles. The friction stir processing (FSP) method can produce composites with very fine and uniform distribution of the reinforcement phase. Hence, in the present research, for the first time, FSP was used to fabricate Al/Mg2Si in-situ composites. For this purpose, pure Mg was added to Al-Si cast eutectic alloy by FSP. The formation of Mg2Si was studied by a variety of analysis techniques. The results prove the applicability of FSP for producing of Al/Mg2Si composite. The hardness of the prepared composite shows moderate improvement (similar to 15%) compared to the FSPed base alloy. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.