EFFECT OF CRYOGENIC TREATMENT ON HYBRID COMPOSITE

U.Tamilarasan
S.R.Antony Raja V.Sriram
K.Gopi Krishnan R.BalaMurugan
Department Of Production Engineering
Sri Sairam Engineering College, India
s.r.antonyraja@gmail.com
sriramkrish66@gmail.com
rr.balamurugan2T@gmail.com

KEYWORDS: Cryogenic treatment, Fabrication of composites, Destructive testing, Impact testing

ABSTRACT
In this present scenario of technology, due to over exploiting of metal resources, composites are
emerging as a replacement of metals in various applications. Even these composites have
difficulties in achieving the actual need for the replacement. Hence they are treated to enhance their
properties in room temperature. Cryogenic treatment is one of the most effective treatments in
enhancing mechanical properties of the materials in their applications.
This project is a review of the effect of the effect of cryogenic treatment i.e. the investigations on
the influence of cryogenic treatment on the mechanical properties of composites are presented. The
selected materials were cryogenically treated at liquid nitrogen temperature where the composites
are treated at liquid nitrogen temperature where the composites are treated at sub-zero temperatures
i.e. at around 77k. Comparison of treated and untreated samples under various loads revealed that
this technique has potential to increase the performance of composites. Changes in crystalline and
hardness were studied; scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate changes in
morphology due to cryogenic treatment. This approach provides an understanding of how
temperature and vol. % of SiC influence composite machining behaviour. The hardness, wear
resistance, and tensile property are high for cryo-treated specimens and these properties reduce with
increase in temperature. The properties also increase with increasing % of SiC reinforcements.
Hence the comparison method was employed to study the effect on mechanical properties were
developed illustrating the significant factors that affect the performance of cryogenically treated
composites.



INTRODUCTION
The effect of cryogenic cooling on the tensile properties of metal-matrix composites has been
studied by Gayda and Elbert. Cryogenic welding extends the first stage totally elastic behaviour of
the composites. The beneficial effects of the cryogenic cooling resulted from an alteration of the
residual stress state brought about by plastic flow of the matrix. Levi and Papazian used the thermo-
elastoplastic finite element methods to investigate the thermal cycling of silicon carbide whisker
reinforced Al-matrix composites (SiC/5456).They obtained the changes in residual quantities during
thermal cycling including cycling to cryogenic temperatures and the effect of these changes on
subsequent metal behaviour.
Consolidated composites showed exceptionally high hardness values, which are attributed to the
formation of ternary phases at the temperatures of consolidation. The characterization of
tribological behaviour of cryo-chilled AL-B4C composites cast during high rate heat transfer during
solidification was studied. He observed that microstructures of the chilled composites are finer than
that of the un-chilled matrix alloy with uniform distribution of B4C particles.
Because of high specific strength and stiffness and low electrical and thermal conductivity of glass
fiber reinforced composites, these are attractive alternates to metals for cryogenic applications.
Glass fiber reinforced composites were subjected to various cure cycles and subsequently
cryogenically cooled and influence of polymer chemical composition and processing parameters on
the magnitude of residual stress developed in these compositions have been reported.

CRYOGENIC TREATMENT
The various equipments used in our research work are as follows
1. Liquid nitrogen tank
2. Cryo processor
3. Control Panel

METHODOLOGY
Cryogenics is defined as the branch of physics and engineering that study very low temperatures,
how to produce them, and how materials behave at those temperatures. The word cryogenics
literally means the production of icy cold. Before starting the test, the equipments needed for the
treatment need to be prepared and the steps for preparation is shown below.

THE MAKING OF LIQUID NITROGEN
STEP 1: LIQUEFACTION
A common method for production of liquid nitrogen is the liquefaction of air. Liquefaction is the
phase change of a substance from the gaseous phase to the liquid phase
STEP 2: STORAGE
Once liquid nitrogen is removed from the distillation chamber it is stored in a pressurized tank or
well insulated deewar flask
TREATMENT PROCEDURE
1) The liquid nitrogen as generated from the nitrogen plant is stored in storage vessels. With the
help of transfer lines, it is directed to a closed vacuum evacuated chamber called cryogenic freezer
through a nozzle. The supply of liquid nitrogen into the cryo-freezer is operated with the help of
solenoid valves. Inside the chamber gradual cooling occurs at a rate of 2 degree Celsius/min from
the room temperature to a temperature of 196 degree Celsius.
2) Once the sub-zero temperature is reached, specimens are transferred to the nitrogen chamber
wherein they are stored for 24 hours with continuous supply of liquid nitrogen. Fig 1 illustrates the
entire setup for cryogenic treatment. The entire process is schematically shown in fig.2


FABRICATION OF COMPOSITES
A key challenge in the processing of composites is to homogenously distribute the reinforcement
phases to achieve a defect-free microstructure. Based on the shape, the reinforcing phases in the
composites can be either particle or fibres.
There are numerous methods for fabricating composite components, they are classified as
1) CONVENTIONAL PROCESSING
a) STIR CASTING
b) SQUEEZE CASTING
2) OTHER PROCESSING TECHNIQUES
a) PRESSURE LESS INFILTERATION
b) GAS INJECTION
DESTRUCTIVE TESTING
In destructive testing, tests are carried out to the specimens failure, in order to understand a
specimens structural performance or material behaviour under different loads.
There are many types of destructive testing, but we have used only three types of methods , those
are
1) TENSILE TESTING
2) IZOD TESTING
3) HARDNESS TESTING


RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1) TENSILE STRENGTH
Tensile tests were carried out on an Instron tensile testing machine with a constant crosshead speed
of 1mm/min. The table below shows the tensile strength of both cryogenically treated and untreated
samples.
Table 1 Comparison of Tensile strength of both treated and untreated samples
Sample description Tensile strength
(Mpa)/Before treatment
Tensile strength (Mpa)/after
treatment
Mg-5%Zn/5% SiC 209 125
Mg-5%Zn/7.5% SiC 189 114
Mg-5%Zn/10% SiC 148 74

2) IMPACT STRENGTH
Impact tests were carried out on impact test machine. The composite specimens used for the test
were aged at cryogenic temperature 180 degC. The table below shows the impact strength of both
cryogenically treated and untreated samples.
Table 2 Comparison of Impact strength of both treated and un treated samples
Sample description Strength (Joule)/Before
treatment
Strength (joule)/after
treatment
Mg-5%Zn/5% SiC 8.5 9.85
Mg-5%Zn/7.5% SiC 7.1 8.2
Mg-5%Zn/10% SiC 7.5 8.4

3) MICRO-HARDNESS
Vickers micro hardness measurements were done on the specimens with a loading of 0.5kg and
speed of 50 m/s. It was observed that the hardness was peak during cryo-environment. This superior
hardness is due to the strong interfacial bonding between the SiC particulates and the magnesium
matrix as a result of cryogenic treatment.
Table below shows the hardness of both cryogenically treated and untreated samples.





Table 3 Comparison of Micro-Hardness of both treated and untreated samples
Sample description Hardness (HRc)/Before
treatment
Hardness(HRc)/after treatment
Mg-5%Zn/5% SiC 32 40
Mg-5%Zn/7.5% SiC 33.5 42.5
Mg-5%Zn/10% SiC 36.25 45.3

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