Effect of Heat treatment on Fatigue Behavior of B4C and Copper Coated short Basalt fiber\nReinforced Al 2014 Based Hybrid Composite

Abstract

Boron carbide (B4C) particulate and Copper coated\nBasalt fiber reinforced Al2014 composites were fabricated by stir\ncasting technique. Boron carbide particles and short copper\ncoated basalt fiber were varied from 2 wt. % to 8 wt. % in steps of 2\n%. To improve the interfacial bonding between basalt fiber and\nmatrix Al2014 alloy, the fibers are coated with copper by\nelectroless deposition method. The Scanning Electron Microscope\n(SEM) clearly shows the uniform coating of copper on the surface\nof fiber and also observed that, increased wt % of reinforcement in\nascast composites results in momentous progress in fatigue\nstrength. The addition of boron carbide shows better fatigue\nstrength compared to the addition of copper coated basalt fiber in\nAl2014. The Heat treated hybrid composites for all weight % of\nreinforcement’s shows 1.2 to 2 % better fatigue life as compared to\nascast composites. This may be due to the refinement of grains\nand development of strong intermolecular bonding between the\nparticles of composites. The fracture analysis done by SEM,\nclearly revealed that the crack initiated from the region of voids or\nporosity in the matrix and not in the region of boron carbide and\ncopper coated basalt fiber interface.