Effect of TiC addition on the mechanical properties and microstructure of Al-Si alloy O.O. Joseph ⇑ , A.S. Afolalu, A.A. Abioye, S.E. Agbo, S.F. Olatunde, O.S. Omotehinwa Department of Mechanical Engineering, Covenant University, P.M.B. 1023, Canaanland, Ota, Nigeria article info Article history: Received 24 January 2020 Received in revised form 16 April 2020 Accepted 20 April 2020 Available online xxxx Keywords: Nanoparticles Composite Stir casting Aluminium abstract This study is focused on the development and characterization of a stir cast Al-Si alloy reinforced with titanium carbide nano-particles. The composite was developed using the stir casting method and the casted samples were prepared with TiC nano-particle at 0.4 (B1), 0.8 (B2), 1.2 (B3), 1.6 (B4) and 2.0 (B5) wt. % of the entire composition, as well as a control sample, and thereafter subjected to tensile and hardness tests. It was noticed that none of the samples at the chosen concentrations brought about a greater hardness value than that of the control sample (Sample A), however they all show a positive trend with an increase in the % wt. of reinforcement bringing about a possibility of increase in the hard- ness value. This suggests that a further increase above 2.0% of the reinforcement should bring about an increase in hardness above that of the base Al-Si alloy. On the other hand, the tensile strength was sig- nificantly increased upon reinforcement. B5 exhibited the highest tensile strength by displaying a tran- sition from needles/plate-like to globular/fibrous morphology. Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Sympo- sium on Nanostructured, Nanoengineered and Advanced Materials. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. Introduction The modification of materials and material properties with the use of nanoparticles has attracted widespread attention espe- cially in the area of strength and stiffness improvement. Al–Si cast alloy is an encouraging material used primarily in automo- bile industry due to their great strength-to-weight ratio, excep- tional castability and worthy mechanical properties. Such alloys blend outstanding mechanical characteristics and strong resis- tance to corrosion with fine castability [1-4]. The need for enhancement of properties of Al-Si based alloys has expressed importance due to the fact that at least 90% of aluminium cast- ings are based on aluminium–silicon today. Being a binary alloy providing exceptional castability at low cost, aluminium–silicon based alloys are commonly used in numerous industries like for instance, the automotive industry [5]. Aluminium-based metal matrix composites and aluminium–silicon alloys have found usage in the production of a number of automotive engine machineries [6]. Based on these recent growths, there is a demand for composite materials possessing great chemical and mechanical characteristics including toughness, improved corro- sion resistance and high hardness [7]. Recently, researches on metal matrix composites (MMC) suggest that these materials dis- play advantageous industrial applications owing to their high resistance to elevated temperature and greater strength-to- weight ratio. These prompted researchers to focus on the devel- opment of reduced-cost products, especially metal matrix com- posite, which have improved features [8]. The utilization of Al-based cast alloys is currently on the increase. Although they possess great corrosion resistance accom- panied with outstanding mechanical properties, the effect and contribution of reinforcement with nanoparticles however has not been extensively explored. Al-Si alloys lack adequate corro- sion resistance and strength amongst other properties. The com- bination of strength and ductility has warranted the production of great strength Al-Si alloys with noteworthy ductility in the recent times [9]. The aim of this research is to significantly improve certain properties of stir cast Al-Si alloys with the use of Titanium Carbide (TiC) nanoparticles modifiers. The research is further aimed at comparing the viability and benefits that the use of the selected nanoparticles has on Al-Si alloys and their properties. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.04.544 2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Symposium on Nanostructured, Nanoengineered and Advanced Materials. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +2348035172086. E-mail address: funmjoseph@gmail.com (O.O. Joseph). Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr Please cite this article as: O. O. Joseph, A. S. Afolalu, A. A. Abioye et al., Effect of TiC addition on the mechanical properties and microstructure of Al-Si alloy, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.04.544