The effect of reinforced SiC on the mechanical properties of the fabricated hypoeutectic Al-Si alloy by centrifugal casting

Abstract

Abstract Centrifugal casting is one of the advanced casting techniques widely used in modern metallurgical industries. The current work is concerned and focuses on study the effects of a selected horizontal and vertical centrifugal casting parameters including, the type of the process, the mold rotation (spinning) speeds and the adding ratio of carbide silicone (SiC) micro powder on the quality of the hypoeutectic AlSi alloy hollow cylindrical fabricated workpieces by using the response surface methodology (RSM) and the full factorial design (FFD) for the design of experiments (DOE). After examined the qualities of the producing workpieces, it is found that the finest porosities were obtained when using the vertical centrifugal casting processes, especially at mold speed of 920 RPM without adding the SiC powder and the porosity sizes increased at higher mold speeds up to 1440 RPM. At these mold speeds the inner surfaces of the produced workpieces seen with lowest raining and shrinkage cavities defects, and with the best outer surfaces qualities especially when using the adding of 0.6% SiC powder. The maximum tensile strength obtained when using the higher mold speed and the corresponding G factor values, without using the added SiC mixed powder and when using the vertical centrifugal casting, reached 167\u202fMPa. The maximum proof stresses were obtained when using the higher mold speed values, the added SiC mixed micro powder and using the vertical centrifugal casting, reached 13.6\u202fMPa. Finally, the maximum percentage elongation was obtained when using the mold speed of 920 RPM, which equivalent to G factor value of 56 with using of the added SiC mixed powder and vertical centrifugal casting reached 1.6%. This means that the values of maximum tensile strength, proof stresses and percentage elongation obtained for the hypoeutectic Al-Si Alloy hollow cylindrical fabricated workpieces when using the centrifugal casting processes, increased by 355, 13.3 and 87,5%, respectively when comparing with the using of the conventional gravitational casting process.