The aim of this work is to develop a composite material and investigate its
mechanical characteristics especially suited for automotive applications, and
finite element analysis (FEA) of fabricated composite is carried out to examine
the mechanical behavior of composites. Utilizing aluminum alloy ingot (LM13) as
the matrix material and zirconium diboride (ZrB2) as reinforcement,
this work creates composites with improved mechanical and physical properties by
accounting impact, tensile, compression, and hardness behavior. FEA is used to
examine the increasing behavior of material properties for various volume
segments of reinforcement (2.5, 5, 7.5, and 10 wt%) that are supplied to the
matrix to determine an acceptable volume percentage of composite based on their
input features. In FEA, the impact, tensile, compression, and hardness
characteristics of the composite model are investigated by considering von Mises
stress, equivalent elastic strain, and total deformation. The experimental
results show that the hardness increased by up to 82.5% when 10 wt% of
ZrB2 was added to the LM13 aluminum matrix. The tensile, impact,
and compressive behavior of composites reinforced with the same weight
percentage of ZrB2 similarly exhibit a rising trend, with percentages
of 28.03%, 73.3%, and 25.09% correspondingly. The FEA results also show that the
addition of 10 wt% ZrB2 to the matrix model enhances the overall
mechanical properties, and the same (10 wt%) composition of the composite model
is recommended for automotive applications. Metal matrix composites based on
aluminum alloy are widely used as engineering materials in the automotive,
aerospace, marine, defense, and aircraft industries due to their superior
mechanical and physical properties.
