International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology IJORAT

Vol 1, Issue 9, NOVEMBER 2016

EVALUATION OF MECHANICAL
PROPERTIES ND OPTIMIZATION OF
SURFACE ROUGHNESS OF HYBRID
COMPOSITE MATERIAL USING TAGUCHI
Dr.D.Thresh kumar1, Dr.V.Venugopal2, Dr.S.Karthisan3
Associate Professor/Mechanical Engineering, Francis Xavier Engineering College, Tirunelveli, India1
Associate Professor/Mechanical Engineering, Francis Xavier Engineering College, Tirunelveli, India2
Associate Professor/Mechanical Engineering, Francis Xavier Engineering College, Tirunelveli, India3
ABSTRACT
Accompanying the development of mechanical industry, the demands for alloy materials having high
hardness, toughness and impact resistance are increasing. Wire EDM machines are used to cut conductive metals
of any hardness or that are difficult or impossible to cut with traditional methods. The problem of arriving at the
optimum levels of the operating parameters has attracted the attention of the researchers and practicing engineers
for a very long time. Wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) is widely used in many industries for
machining conductive materials. In this paper, parametric optimization of Wire electrical discharge machining of
Composite material is evaluated. Selection of optimum machining parameters combination for obtaining
maximum material removal rate is challenging task in WEDM due to presence of large number of process
variables and complicated process mechanisms. In general no perfect combinations exist, that results the best
material removal rate and the best surface finish. This paper is an attempt to find the best affecting parameters
for maximize material removal rate (MRR). The output is MRR have been considered as the measures of process
performance with four different control parameters. To investigate and optimize the WEDM parameters using
response surface method. Three process parameters chosen were Pulse on-time (Ton), Pulse off time (Toff), Servo
voltage, and percentage of reinforcement.
Key words : Wire electrical discharge, parameters, surface finish

INTRODUCTION
COMPOSITE MATERIALS
Modern technology has placed increasing
demands on materials. This need for better materials is
particularly acute in the area of dynamic structure.
Where not only high strength is required but also light
weight. The efficiency of dynamic structures such as
aircraft, high speed manufacturing machinery, power
generating equipment could be affected by an
improvement in the structural efficiency of the
materials. The structural efficiency of materials is
becoming even more important as hardware and capital
equipment become larger and larger.
Engineering materials such as steel,
aluminium, titanium, and glass have similar specific
module, and organic materials have lower modulus-todensity rations. This have meant that the designer must
generally use lower-density materials and increase the
section size to gain flexural or bending stiffness without
excessive weight. A key problem in designing these
structures pertains to the square-cube relationship: that
is, the strength and stiffness of a structure increase whit
the square of the liner dimension (cross-section area),
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whereas the weight increases with the cube of the liner

dimension. In order to maintain the stiffness and
strength, new design techniques must be used and highstrength, stiffer materials are required.
A composite is commonly defined as a
combination of two or more distinct materials, each of
which retains its own distinctive properties, to create a
new material with properties that cannot be achieved by
any of the components acting alone. Using this
definition, it can be determined that a wide range of
engineering
Materials fall into this category. For example, concrete
is a composite because it is a mixture of Portland
cement and aggregate. Fiberglass sheet is a composite
since it is made of glass fibres imbedded in a polymer.
Composite materials are said to have two
phases. The reinforcing phase is the fibres, sheets, or
particles that are embedded in the matrix phase. The
reinforcing material and the matrix material can be
metal, ceramic, or polymer. Typically, reinforcing
materials are strong with low densities while the matrix
is usually a ductile, or tough, material.
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Vol 1, Issue 9, NOVEMBER 2016

Fibrous Composites
Fibres are responsible for high strength and
stiffness ratio to weight of the composite. This class can
be further subdivided into continuous and discontinuous
fibres. Continuous fibres are those which have lengths
normally greater than 15 times the critical length (l >15
lc) and discontinuous fibres have lengths shorter than
this. The discontinuous fibres can be aligned or
randomly oriented. It is obvious that for better strength
of the composite and better load transfer the fibres
should be continuous. Examples of some fibres are
carbon fibres, boron fibres, E-glass fibers, SiCfibers,
etc.

Figure. Fibrous Composites

1.

2.

Short-fiber reinforced composites. Short-fiber

reinforced composites consist of a matrix
reinforced by a dispersed phase in form of
discontinuous fibers (length < 100*diameter)
shown in figure 1.2.
1. Composites with random orientation
of fibers.
2. Composites with preferred orientation
of fibers.
Long-Fiber Reinforced Composites. Longfiber reinforced composites consist of a matrix
reinforced by a dispersed phase in form of
continuous fibers.

Laminate Composites
When a fiber reinforced composite consists of several
layers with different fiber orientations, it is called
multilayer (angle-ply) composite shown in figure 1.3.

MANUFACTURING METHODS OF MMCS

Manufacturing methods of MMCs on industrial scale
can be classified into three main groups. (1) Liquid state
processing (2) Solid state processing (3) Vapour state
processing. These three classes are briefly discussed
below.

Liquid State Processing

This is a very common and widely used route
for Aluminium metal matrix composites. The important
liquid state processing techniques used for MMCs are

Stir Casting
This method involves incorporation of ceramic
particulate into liquid aluminium melt and allowing the
mixture to solidify. In this technique, the critical factor
is to create good wetting between the particulate
reinforcement and the liquid aluminium alloy melt. The
simplest and most commercially used technique is
known as vortex technique or stir-casting technique.
The vortex technique involves the introduction of pretreated ceramic particles into the vortex of molten alloy
created by a rotating impeller. Generally, it is possible
to incorporate up to 30% ceramic particles in the size
range 5 to 100 m in a variety of molten aluminium
alloys. The molten metal and ceramic particle slurry
may be transferred directly to a shaped mould prior to
complete solidification or it may be allowed to solidify
in billet or rod shape so that it can be reheated to the
slurry form for further processing by technique such as
die-casting, and investment casting. Another variant of
stir casting process is compo-casting. Here, ceramic
particles are incorporated into the alloy in the semisolid state.

Infiltration
In infiltration technique, liquid metal is
injected into an assembly of short fibres is called the
preform. Commonly, the preform is designed to have a
specific shape to form an integral part of a finished
product. Preform is commonly fabricated by
sedimentation of short fibres from liquid suspension.
The process can also be adapted for production of
particulate MMCs.

Spray Deposition

Figure. Laminate Composites

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Spray deposition techniques fall into two

distinct classes, depending whether the droplet stream is
produced from a molten bath, or by continuous feeding
of cold metal into a zone of rapid heat injection. The
process was developed for building up bulk metallic
material by directing an atomized stream of droplets
onto a substrate. Adaptation to particulate MMC
production by injection of ceramic powder into the
spray has been extensively explored, although with
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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology IJORAT

Vol 1, Issue 9, NOVEMBER 2016

limited commercial success. Droplet velocities typically

average about 20-40 m/s. A thin layer of liquid, or
semi-solid, is often present on the top of the ingot as it
forms. MMC material produced in this way often
exhibits inhomogeneous distributions of ceramic
particles and porosity in the as-sprayed state is typically
about 5-10%. Thermal spraying differs in several
respects from melt atomization processes. Aluminium
metal matrix composites processed by spray deposition
technique are relatively inexpensive with the cost of
fabrication intermediate between stir cast and powder
metallurgy processes

In-Situ Processing
Several novel techniques have been developed
in which constituents are brought together under
conditions such that a chemical reaction occurs while
the mixture consolidates. In some processes, liquid
metal is introduced which progressively oxidizes. For
example, the directional oxidation of aluminium is
exploited in several processes patented under the Dimox
process. Other processes consist of blending several
elemental powders and causing them to react by heating
with transient formation of a liquid phase.
One important class of such processes is the
XD or Exothermic D processes. An example of
such a process is the reaction between blended powders
of Al, Ti and B to produce Al + TiB2 composites. By
making a suitable powder compact, into which liquid
metal is infiltrated as it reacts with the preform, a near
net shape forming is possible.

Solid State Processing

The important solid-state processing techniques used
for MMCs are discussed in the following sections.

Mono-filament reinforced AMMCs have been mainly

produced by the diffusion bonding (foil-fibre-foil) route
or by the evaporation of relatively thick layers of
aluminium on the surface of the fibre. Al 6061/ boron
fibre composites have been produced by diffusion
bonding via the foil-fibre-foil process.
However, this process is more commonly used to
produce Ti based fibre reinforced composites. The
process is difficult for producing complex shapes and
high fibre volume fraction reinforcements.

Vapour State Processing

The process for the vapour state synthesis of MMCs is
discussed below:

Physical Vapour Deposition

Physical vapour deposition methods are
relatively slow; evaporation method is relatively fast
and involves thermal vaporization of the target species
in a vacuum. Evaporation process used for fabrication
of monofilament reinforced Ti involves passing the
fibre through a region having a high vapour pressure of
the metal to be deposited, where
Condensation takes place so as to produce a
thick surface coating. The vapour is produced by
directing a high power electron beam onto the end of a
solid bar feedstock. Alloy composition can be tailored,
since differences in evaporation rate between different
solutes become compensated by changes in composition
of the molten pool formed on the end of the bar, until a
steady state is reached in which the alloy content of the
deposit is the same as that of the feedstock.

Starting a Cut from the Edge

Powder Metallurgy (P/M) Processing

P/M processing involves blending of
aluminium alloy powder with ceramic short
fibre/whisker in dry or wet condition, followed by cold
compaction, canning, degassing and high temperature
consolidation stage such as Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP)
or extrusion. Powder metallurgy processed AMMCs,
contain oxide particles in the form of plate-like particles
of few tens of nm thick and in volume fractions ranging
from 0.05 to 0.5 depending on powder history and
processing conditions. These fine oxide particles tend to
act as a dispersion-strengthening agent and often have
strong influence on the matrix properties particularly
during heat treatment. P/M processing is a very versatile
technique and is widely used for AMMCs.

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When starting a cut from the edge of a work

piece, cutting a form tool, slicing a tube or bar stock, or
starting a cut from a large diameter start hole, is a
slower process without submerged machining
capabilities. There is a greater risk of breaking a wire if
the flush is not set properly or if too much power is
used. This condition is greatly reduced when cutting the
part submerged

Preparation By In situ Method

The base material used in this investigation Al4Cu is most widely used in making automobile body
parts like brake drums and brake disk. the different
chemical composition present in the alloy were
investigated by optical emission spectroscopy. The
alloy with different percentage of TiB2 was prepared by
insitu method.

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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology IJORAT

Vol 1, Issue 9, NOVEMBER 2016

Initially The Al4Cu (Al4 wt.%Cu) binary

alloy was cast by diluting Al33Cu (Al33 wt.%Cu)
master alloy with commercial pure Al in a pit type
resistance furnace. The in situ Al4CuTiB2 composite
with 5 and10 wt.% of TiB2 particles were prepared by
mixed salt reaction route in which K2TiF6 and KBF4
salts were added in proper Ti:B ratio to the diluted
liquid metal at 800 C and stirred for 1 h at regular
intervals and cast in a permanent mould. After cooling
at room temperature the specimens are taken out from
the mould.The three prepared specimen are:

after polishing to determine the phase present. A XRay Diffraction equipment with copper radiation was
used to obtain the X-ray diffraction patterns
S.NO

CONDITION

DATA

Raw Data Origin

XRD measurement
(*.XRDML)

Scan Axis

2Theta-Omega

Al-4Cu

Start Position [2Th.]

9.9884

Al-4Cu- 5TiB2

End Position [2Th.]

79.9774

Al-4Cu-10TiB2

Step Size [2Th.]

0.0170

Scan Step Time [s]

3.1750

Scan Type

Continuous

PSD Mode

Scanning

PSD Length [2Th.]

2.12

10

Offset [2Th.]

0.0000

11

Divergence Slit Type

Automatic

12
Optical Emission Spectroscopy
Optical emission spectroscope is a device used
for analysing the different chemical composition
present in any alloys. The different chemical
composition present in the base material Al-4Cu were
investigated by using optical emission spectroscope
Hardness Measurement:
There are different hardness testing machine
will be used for analysing the harness of the composite.
For this investigation the hardness of the composite
were investigated by brinell hardness testing machine.
For testing the hardness value, 250 kilogram force and 5
mm ball indenter were used to check the brinell
hardness
number
of
the
three
specimens.
XRD Analysis:
XRD analysis is used to find different peaks of
the chemical composition present in the material. The
peaks of the composite were investigated by XRD
analysis. For identifying the peaks of composition the
condition used given below. Samples cut from squeeze
cast dog bone ingots were subjected to XRD analysis

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13

Irradiated Length
[mm]
Specimen Length
[mm]

18.00
10.00

14

Measurement
Temperature [C]

25.00

15

Anode Material

Cu

16

K-Alpha1 []

1.54060

17

K-Alpha2 []

1.54443

18

K-Beta []

1.39225

19

K-A2 / K-A1 Ratio

0.50000

20

Generator Settings

30 mA, 40 kV

Table. XRD measurement condition

RSM Experiment using Wire Electrical Discharge
Machining
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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology IJORAT

Vol 1, Issue 9, NOVEMBER 2016

Wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM),

a process variant of electrical discharge machining
(EDM), is a non-traditional machining method that is
widely used to pattern tool steels for die manufacturing.
In the WEDM process, a small wire is engaged as the
tool electrode. The dielectric medium is usually demineralized water. The work piece mounted on the table
of the machine and the dielectric medium is ejected to
the sparking area. The movement of the wire is
controlled numerically to achieve the desired complex
two and three-dimensional shapes for the work piece.
WEDM uses electro-thermal mechanism to cut
electrically conductive material.
ELEMENT

Al

Si

Fe

Cu

CONTENT

94.74

0.0724

0.265

4.87

Machine Details:
WEDM- Sprint cut 734
Pulse on Time

- 1 to 3 s

Pulse off Time

- 3 to 5s

Servo voltage
volt

- 10 to 20

Percentage of reinforcement
10%

-0%, 5%,

Table 6.1 chemical composition of Al-4Cu

alloy
Hardness Measurement:

COMPOSITE

HARDNESS
(BHN)

Al-4Cu

84.9

Al-4Cu-5Tib2

87

Al-4Cu-10Tib2

95

Kerf Width
Wire diameter + 2 work piece gap
Wire Diameter
Tolerance
0.005 mm

Electrod
e

- Copper
Wire
- 0.25mm
-

100
95
90
85
80
75

Hardness ,BHN

S.NO

From the observed hardness result table 4, we

can identify that, the increase of Tib2 particles present
in the Al-4Cu alloy significantly improves the hardness
value. The increase of the hardness value of the alloy
due to the following reason (i) high hardness value of
Tib2 reinforcement shown in table

Hardness,BHN
0

5
Wt % TiB2

10

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Optical Emission Spectroscopy
Optical emission spectroscope is a device used
for analysing the different chemical composition
present in any alloys. The different chemical
composition present in the base material Al-4Cu was
investigated by using optical emission spectroscope
shown in table 6.1.

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Variation of hardness value for the composite with

different weight
Percentage of TiB2
XRD result forAl-4Cu Alloy:
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) for the prepared
specimen are shown below. from the result we can
identify that, the higher peak curves indicate the
presence of matrix material aluminium. The smaller

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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology IJORAT

Vol 1, Issue 9, NOVEMBER 2016

peak curve indicating the presence of copper in Al-4Cu

alloy. The peak lists are given below.

Optical Microscope:
The photograph of Al-4Cu, Al-4Cu-5 & 10 %
of Tib2 are taken by using optical microscope. From the
photograph of Al-4Cu alloy, we can identify that the
soft matrix material in the alloy (Al) is viewed clearly
in the form of white region. The presence of copper in
the matrix is viewed in the form of brown region.
The alloy is reinforced with 5% Tib2 particles ,
thus the optical microscope images of the composite
shows that the darkest region in the microstructure is
essentially a combination of hardened particles (Tib2)
.The white region is the presence of Soft matrix Al. The
Al dendrites are surrounded by the Hardened particles
(TiB2).

XRD analysis for Al-4Cu alloy

Peak List:
Pos.
[2Th.]
10.858
9
38.808
0
42.725
6
45.052
8
47.832
8
65.413
3
78.553
7

Height
[cts]

FWHM
Left [2Th.]

dspacing
[]

Rel.
Int.
[%]

6.46

0.8029

8.14771

0.36

1802.6
6

0.1840

2.32051

100.00

24.74

0.8029

2.11637

1.37

892.08

0.1338

2.01232

49.49

28.40

0.8029

1.90165

1.58

697.02

0.2342

1.42677

38.67

766.75

0.3011

1.21778

42.53

The alloy is reinforced with 10% Tib2 particles

,due to the increment of the amount of Tib2 particles in
the alloy, the size of Al dendrites decreases
progressively which can easily viewed by optical
microscope images.

Table XRD peak list of Al-4Cu alloy

Al-4Cu-5Tib2 Composite:
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results for the al4Cu alloy reinforced with 5 % of Tib2 particles were
analysed. The higher peak curve indicates the presence
of aluminium. The presence of the Tib2 particles and
Cu are in the minor peaks, which is indicated in figure.
The peaks observed are given below figure 6.4.

Optical Microscope Images:

XRD analysis for Al-4Cu-5Tib2

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA):

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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology IJORAT

Vol 1, Issue 9, NOVEMBER 2016

In order to study the significance of the process

variables towards Material Removal Rate, analysis of
variance (ANOVA) was performed. Here in this

The objective of this project is to find

the optimized parameters which influence Material
removal rate (MRR). The influence of parameters on
MRR is, voltage increases will increases MRR highly
and stands in first place, Pulse off increases will reduces
MRR highly and stands in second place, Pulse on
increases will increases MRR slightly and stands in
third place, current increases will increases MRR
slightly and stands is fourth position.
The influence of parameters and optimization
is performed using response surface Method and
ANOVA is conducted.

analysis 95% confidence level is used. The table II

shows the p-value known as probability value is less
than 0.05 (alpha value). It shows that all the parameters
are significant. The R2 value from the above analysis is
99.58% which indicates the model used for the analysis
is appropriate. The difference between the R2 (adjusted)
and R2 (predicted) is also very low which is desirable.
Effects of Input Process Parameters on
MRR in contour plot and three dimensions.
The effects of input process parameters on
MRR were analyzed on the basis of mathematical
relationship obtained through experimental results and
response surface methodology. Figures 1(a) and 1(b)
plot the predicted values of MRR in terms of the
voltage, pulse-off time, and pulse on time.

Effects of Input Process Parameters on MRR in contour

plot and three dimensions.

CONCLUSION
The Al-4Cu, Al-4Cu-5 & 10 % Tib2
specimens are to be subjected to investigation and
optimization of WEDM parameters using response
surface method. Three process parameters chosen were
Pulse on-time (Ton), Pulse off time (Toff), Servo
voltage, and percentage of reinforcement.

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The parameters like Voltage and Pulse off are

mostly affecting on MRR .The Voltage and Pulse off
increases means, MRR will increase and decreases
respectively. MRR of material is increased when work
piece is machined.

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