Abstract
In the current study, stir and centrifugal casting apparatus have been designed and constructed for the preparation of cast functionally graded aluminium alloy(AA4043) based composites containing Silicon Carbide (SiC) reinforcement particles. Hardness of different cast functionally graded composites (FGCs.) processed with different rotating speeds have been investigated. Unreinforced base alloy and cast gravity composite corresponding to the composition of matrix alloy of cast FGCs have also been cast and characterized for the purpose of comparison.The present study aims to understand the influence of rotating speed of mould on the reinforcing particles distribution and hardness of the resulting cast FGCs. It was found that increasing the processing speed of mould increases the level of distribution of reinforcing particles from the inner to the outer region. At a given processing speed, hardness increases significantly with increasing the radial distance for the both top and bottom surfaces and could be attributed to the segregation of the reinforcing particles at the outer region.
