INFLUENCE OF SIZE AND WEIGHT FRACTION OF CARBON NANOTUBE ON COEFFICIENT OF THERMAL EXPANSION OF Al-CNT METAL MATRIX

• Main Authors: Pothamsetty Kasi V Rao, B. Raghu Kumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Zibeline International 2019-01-01
• Series: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Developments
• Subjects: Carbon Nanotube (CNT); Powder Metallurgy; Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM); Aluminium Matrix
• Online Access: https://jmerd.org.my/Paper/Vol.42,No.1(2019)/85-89.pdf

Metal matrix composites are grabbing more attention by researchers due to their outstanding properties which meets the requirements of a specific application. The work presented in the current paper investigates the influence of size of carbon nanotube in Al-CNT metal matrix composite. The metal matrix composites were fabricated using powder metallurgy process. The influence of size (Type1, Type2 and Type3) and content (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5wt %) of multi walled carbon nanotube in matrix on thermal properties (CTE) were experimentally investigated. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) was used to observe the microstructure of fabricated metal matrix and to examine the uniform dispersion of CNT without any agglomerations in the matrix and was found to be satisfactory. The results of thermal test showed that if the CNT particle content increases considerably the Coefficient of thermal expansion decreases markedly upon the increase in CNT content and Type 1 Al-CNT matrix shows a maximum decrement of 15.36% in CTE when compared to Type 2 and Type 3 Al-CNT matrix.