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— Aluminum alloy based metal matrix composites are becoming very popular because of their outstanding properties such as high strength to weight ratio, excellent mechanical properties and improved wear properties. From literature survey it was observed that very limited report available on Aluminum alloy-beryl composites, particularly on the effect of beryl content, quenching media and heat treatment on the mechanical and wear properties of Aluminum-beryl composites. Accordingly, the aims of the present study are (i) preparation of Al6061-beryl particles by liquid metallurgy method (stir cast) with possible standardization of the beryl addition to liquid Aluminum alloy, (ii) Study the effect of different quenching media and the beryl content (2-12 wt. %) on the mechanical and wear properties of these composites in both as cast and heat treated conditions. Heat treatment procedure of solutionising at temperature of 5300C for 1hour and quenching in different media (air, water and ice) followed by natural and artificial ageing for different times was adopted. It was observed that the addition of beryl particles to Al6061 alloy improves its hardness, tensile strength and wear resistance with increasing beryl content while the heat treatment had significantly improved these properties compared to that of base alloy and as cast composites.

Beryl-Al6061 alloy composites having 2 -12 wt% of beryl particles were fabricated by liquid metallurgy (stir cast) method. The tensile and wear properties of beryl-Al6061 composites have been evaluated and compared with its base alloy. The results revealed that the Al6061-10 wt% of beryl composites shows an improvement of 15.38% in tensile strength and specific wear rate decreases by 8.9% at normal load of 9.81 N when compared to matrix i.e. base alloy. Significant improvement in tensile properties and hardness are noticed as the wt% of the beryl particles increases. The microstructures of the composites were studied to know the uniform dispersion of the beryl particles in matrix. It has been observed that addition of beryl particles significantly improves ultimate tensile strength and hardness properties as compared with that of unreinforced matrix.

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