Formation of Titanium Carbide MMC and Modelling the Chemical Effect on Powder Density for Additive Manufacturing

TL;DR

This paper explores how titanium carbide improves the properties of aluminum composites used in 3D printing, focusing on density and stability.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel approach to modeling the chemical effects of titanium carbide on powder density in additive manufacturing.

Findings

Adding titanium carbide increased powder density from 2.65 to 2.72 g/cm³.

Titanium had a greater impact on increasing alloy density than carbon.

The bulk modulus of Al6Si8TiC reached 80.34 GPa, the highest among tested materials.

Abstract

Titanium carbide has developed into an exceptional reinforcement contender in Aluminium Matrix Composites (AMCs) because of its greater characteristics such as elevated hardness, elevated elastic modulus, low heat conductivity, and constancy at moderately elevated temperatures. Furthermore, it is consequently selected as the reinforcing segment in AMCs because of its good thermodynamic and wettability stability inside the aluminium melt pool. In this work, titanium carbide powder was mixed to distinguish AlSi10Mg strengthening by the additive manufacturing (AM) process in the category of powder bed identified as Powder Bed Fusion (PBF). The objective of the study was to have homogeneously mixed powders for processing on the reinforcement of AlSi10Mg with TiC. Different characterisation procedures were carried out, such as scanning electron microscope energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), pycnometry, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The advancement of powder density from 2.65 to 2.72 g/cm3 and surface area from 0.02 to 0.14 m2/g was accomplished. The modelling findings concurred that the addition of Ti and C increases the density of the alloy, with Ti contributing more to AlSi than C. It was deduced that with Ti and C added to the system, the bulk modulus increases, with Al6Si8TiC having the largest value of 80.34 GPa.

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