The Influence of the Addition of Nickel on the Structure and Mechanical Properties of Aluminium Bronze Alloy

Abstract

Article HistoryHardness Tensile strength Aluminium Nickel Copper Zinc. This paper describes an investigation of the influence of the addition of Nickel on the mechanical properties of aluminium bronze alloy. The investigation began by casting the specimens in a crucible pit furnace. Sand casting was utilised and was discovered to be more effective because it is inexpensive and easy to use during the production of aluminium bronze alloy. Five different samples of the aluminium bronze alloyed with 0% to 4% nickel were added into the furnace in accordance with their melting points. Nickel has the highest melting point of 1453℃, while copper, aluminium and zinc have melting points of 1084℃, 660℃ and 419℃ respectively. The mixture was manually stirred for around 5 minutes to ensure proper mixing of the alloying materials. After casting, both tensile and hardness tests were carried out on the machined, sectioned and ground specimens. An increment was observed in the samples' hardness as the percentage composition of nickel increased while the tensile strength initially increased and then decreased. It was also observed from the results that the tensile stress for each specimen increased with strain. Contribution/Originality:The current study investigates the effect of adding a range of percentage compositions of nickel to aluminium alloy. corrosion and wear, qualities which have caused it to become one of the more useful engineering materials for heavy duty applications in oil and gas industries [3].This study is aimed at producing aluminium bronze alloyed with nickel that can be used as a potential replacement for conventional materials in automobile, marine, and defence industries such as for marine hardware, shafts and pumps as stainless steel and aluminium bronze alloyed with magnesium are very commonly to construct propeller in seagoing vessels. An effort to manage the great demand of materials with high resistance to corrosion has led to the insufficiency of aluminium bronze alloyed with magnesium. Hence, the need to produce a replacement of magnesium-aluminium bronze alloyed with other materials that have high corrosion resistance, hardness, tensile strength, yield strength and excellent resistance to wear such as aluminium bronze alloyed with nickel.

Effect of Tin Addition on the Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Aluminium Bronze Alloyed with 4% Nickel

“…Also, Table 3 shows that the maximum tensile stress increases as the hardness of the metal increases. The results conform to the previous findings of Oluwadare et al (2019) and Adeyemi et al (2014). Results on Microstructure (Metallography) studie metals and alloys crystalline structures and how these structures relate to the metals' physical characteristics.…”

“…The results conform to the previous investigations of Oluwadare et al (2019) and Adeyemi et al (2014) on aluminium bronze alloyed with different alloying elements Nickel and Magnesium, respectively. Moreover, a high tin content in aluminium bronze alloy results in excessive precipitation hardening, which weakens the material and makes it more brittle, as shown in Figures 2 (a -f).…”

“…Aluminium bronze alloys may occasionally have additional alloying elements purposefully added, such as zinc, nickel, iron, manganese, tin, etc., depending on the desired application and property modification. Additional alloying elements change the microstructure and enhance the mechanical qualities, including strength, toughness, resistance to corrosion, and magnetic behaviour (Oluwadare et al, 2019). Iron, for instance, refines grain, while nickel makes it more corrosion-resistant.…”

“…A well-prepared aluminium-bronze alloy can attain strengths comparable to low alloy steel and stainless steel. Oluwadare et al (2019) studied the impact of nickel added to the aluminium bronze alloy and reported that the hardness of the aluminium bronze alloy increased as the percentage composition of nickel to the aluminium bronze alloy increased. The results conform to the earlier research reported by Adeyemi et al (2014) that the hardness and yield strength of aluminium bronze alloy increased as the percentage of magnesium addition to the composition increased while the ductility of the metal decreased.…”

“…Aluminium makes up between 4 to 14% of the aluminium bronze alloy, with additional alloying elements like nickel, manganese, zinc, chromium, and tin, and copper making up the remaining weight. On rare occasions, silicon is added as one of the alloying elements to produce aluminium bronze alloy (Kear et al, 2007;Oluwadare et al,2019).…”