SYNTHESIS, MECHANICAL AND MICROSTRUCTURAL BEHAVIOUR OF AZ91/NANO ZRO2 STIR CASTED MAGNESIUM METAL MATRIX COMPOSITES

Magnesium is one of the lightest engineering materials with a density of 1.74g/cm³. The need of lightweight materials for fuel saving in automotive industry has led to development of magnesium alloy. In this work AZ91 Mg alloy was used as a base metal and reinforced with Nano Zirconia and fabricated by stir casting process. The result shows a refined matrix structure of the composite compared to matrix alloy. Main aim of this study was to investigate the mechanical properties by varying weight percentage. Mechanical properties of AZ91 alloy and AZ91 Nano zirconia composites have been evaluated and the results were compared with the increased percentage of Nano Zirconia. Microstructural feature, such as Nano zirconia particle distribution was characterized by scanning emission microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersion X-Ray analysis (EDX)