Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Microwave processed EWAC/SiC based metal matrix composite castings

Saloni, Gurjot Singh, Dinesh, Sarbjeet Kaushal ⇑
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gulzar Group of Institutions, Ludhiana-141401, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The current investigation focuses on the feasibility study of formation EWAC/SiC based composite casting
Received 3 May 2021 through Microwave irradiation technique. EWAC + 3%SiC based composite powder was processed inside
Received in revised form 30 May 2021 graphite mould cavity using microwave energy as a heat input at 900 W and 2.45 GHz. Metallurgical
Accepted 4 June 2021
characterizations of processed casting samples were studied through XRD, SEM and EDS techniques.
Available online xxxx
Mechanical property was studied in terms of microhardness. Microstructure study showed the existence
of dispersed SiC reinforced particles in EWAC based matrix with no sign of any macro cracks. The porosity
Keywords:
of composite casting was calculated as 0.96%. The phase study revealed the presence of various hard
Composite casting
Microwave irradiation
phases in the composite casting, which contributed to the higher hardness of the composite castings.
Metallurgical characcterization The microhardness of the EWAC + 3% SiC based casting was observed as 596 ± 65 HV and was 1.5 times
the microhardness of EWAC based casting.
Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2nd International Con-
ference on Functional Material, Manufacturing and Performances.

1. Introduction Microwave energy is a clean form of energy and has a potential

Composite castings are widely used around the industry as a
potential solution for wear applications. In case of metal ceramic
based composite casting, the ceramic based reinforced provides
strength and wear resistance to the casting, while metal matrix
phase imparts ductility and toughness to the casting. Composite
castings are processed through a wide variety of techniques such
as sand casting, stir casting, centrifugal casting, pressure die cast-
ings etc. However, all these techniques are not energy efficient
and cost effective. Many a time non uniform thermal gradient is
produced in these conventional casting methods which causes
the generation of thermal stresses in the casting and result in poor
life of castings. In recent years studies are being carried out in
search of energy efficient, cost effective and environmental
friendly material processing methods. Microwave material pro-
cessing technique is one of energy efficient, environmental friendly
method [1–3]. Now these days, microwave energy is commonly
utilized as a heating methods in processing of various kind of
materials due to its volumetric heating characteristics. The volu-
metric heating characteristic of microwave allows uniform
thermal-gradient throughout the processed materials , hence can
overcome thermal stresses developed in the processed castings.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sarbjeet.kaushal@ggi.ac.in (S. Kaushal).
to become sustainable material processing technique. The metal
reflection characteristic of microwaves had limited its application
in metal processing for a long time. However, Roy et al. (1999)[4]
contradicted this statement by processing the metal powder
through microwave heating technique. Since then, microwave
heating was utilized to process wide varieties of metallic materials
for different applications such as sintering, joining, cladding and
castings [5,6]. Srinath et al. [7] successfully utilized the applica-
tions of microwave energy to join dissimilar joints by introducing
the Ni based powder as a sandwich layer between these two dis-
similar metals. Many others authors have reported the joining of
various similar and dissimilar metals through microwave irradia-
tion [8–13]. Authors [14–17] successfully produced metal-matrix
composite claddings on the metallic substrate using microwave
hybrid heating route. Authors [18,19] further extended the work
by producing functionally graded materials of composite cladding
through microwave heating. Singh et al. [20,21] developed the
composite casting of metal matrix composite materials using
microwave heating and reported that these castings are useful in
wear resistance applications.
EWAC based powder (97% Ni) is associated with excellent cor-
rosion resistance, ductility and toughness properties [15,22,23]. Ni
based alloys are widely used with various ceramic reinforced
materials to form MMC and are used for antiwear applications
[24–26]. SiC based ceramic materials owing to higher inherent

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.06.064
2214-7853/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2nd International Conference on Functional Material, Manufacturing and Performances.

Please cite this article as: Saloni, G. Singh, Dinesh et al., Microwave processed EWAC/SiC based metal matrix composite castings, Materials Today: Proceed-
ings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.06.064
Saloni, G. Singh, Dinesh et al.
hardness are commonly used in wear resistance applications. Var-
ious authors reported the formation of SiC based metal matrix
composite through different processes such as friction stir process-
ing, spark plasma sintering, micropillar compression [27–29] etc.
Still very less literature is available in the processing of SiC based
metal-ceramic composite through microwave heating technique.
In this research, an attempt has been made to process the EWAC/
SiC based metal matrix composite casting through microwave
heating route. Experimentals trials were carried out in domestic
microwave oven at 2.45 GHz and 900 W. The processed castings
were then subjected to various metallurgical and mechanical char-
acterizations methods to know their various properties. Scanning
electron microscopy equipped with EDS was used to characterize
microstructure and various elements present in the composite
castings. Phase analysis study was carried out using X-ray diffrac-
tion method. Microhardness was evaluated using Vicker’s micro-
hardness technique.
2. Experimental procedure
2.1. Preparation of sample
In the current study EWAC powder (97% Ni) and SiC powder
were selected as matrix and reinforced materials respectively.
Table 1. shows the chemical compositions of both raw powders.
The mean particle sizes of EWAC powder and SiC based powder
were 38 ± 9 mm and 47 ± 5 mm respectively. SEM micrographs of
raw powders Fig. 1 (a, b) revealed the ball shape morphology of
Ni particles and knife-edge morphology of SiC particles. Further
EDS analysis of both powders (Fig. 1(c, d)) revealed existence of
majority Ni particles and small amount of Fe, Si in EWAC powder,
while reinforced particles consist of Si and C particles. Preheating
of raw powders was carried out at 180 °C inside microwave oven
under heating mode to remove any kind of moisture particles in
the powders. Both powders were then weighted using an elec-
tronic weighing machine and 3% (by volume) SiC was mixed with
EWAC powder using mechanical mixture device to obtain a mix-
ture of EWAC + 3% SiC. Further EWAC + 3% SiC mixture was filled
in graphite cavity and cavity was covered with a graphite separator
sheet. Then Graphite cavity was placed on a refractory brick and
then cavity was covered with charcoal susceptor particles and
the whole setup was placed in microwave oven as shown in
Fig. 2. When the microwave setup was turned on, initially the pow-
der particles reflect microwaves owing to their lower skin-depth
[30–32], however charcoal susceptors particles are good absorber
of microwaves even at room temperature and hence they start
immediately interacting with microwaves and start converting
microwave energy into heat energy which is transferred to powder
particles present in the vicinity through conventional mode of heat
transfer. Hence the skin depth of powder particle increases and
these also start interacting with microwaves and hence microwave
heating caused the melting of powder particles and hence forma-
tion of casting occurred. Further SiC particles are also excellent
absorber of microwaves and addition of SiC particles results in
the formation of casting in short time as compared to the pure
EWAC based casting. Table 2. illustrates the various optimized pro-
cess parameters for microwave castings.
Table 1
Chemical composition of EWAC powder and SiC.
Material Element
Cr Fe
EWAC powder 0.16 0.03
SiC powder _ _
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
2.2. Microstructure and mechanical characterization of castings
A low speed diamond cutter was used to sectioned the casting
specimen for characterization. Sectioned casting samples were
subsequently polished using standard polishing techniques fol-
lowed by mirror polishing and were etched using etchant solution
of nitric acid, acetic acid and hydrochloric acid prior to the metal-
lurgical characterization. The microstructure of the polished sam-
ples were seen under scanning electron microscope (SEM) in
back scattered mode and the elemental analysis study was carried
out at different points using elemental dispersive spectroscopy
(EDS) equipped with SEM. Phase analysis study of composite cast-
ing was analyzed using X-ray diffraction technique at scan rate of
1omin 1 and scan range of 20°-90°. Further, mechanical character-
ization of developed microwave casting was carried out by mea-
suring Vicker’s microhardness of the developed clads.
Microhardness was measured using Vicker’s microhardness tester
at 25 sec of dwell time and 300 gm of load. Porosity of casting sam-
ple was measured using linear count method.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Study of microstructure
The role of microstructure is very crucial in the overall behavior
of any composite casting. The visual view of microwave processed
casting (Fig. 3 (a)) revealed formation of solid composite casting
during microwave heating. Further backscattered electronic image
of EWAC + 3%SiC based composite casting is shown in Fig. (3 (b)),
which revealed that SiC particles were present in EWAC based
matrix as an unmelted phase. These reinforced particles distribu-
tion was non-uniform throughout the matrix region. The formation
of unique cellular structure of Ni matrix phase was observed dur-
ing the microstructural study, which might be possible due to the
volumetric heating characteristics of microwave heating resulted
in the uniform thermal gradient in the casting region. The presence
of various elements in the composite casting was analyzed using
EDS study. From the EDS results Fig. (4(a-b)) it was analyzed that
the matrix phase (point X (Fig. 3(b)) basically consisted of majority
Ni elements with small amount of Si, Fe, Cr. On the other hand the
reinforced phase (point Y (Fig. 3(b)) comprised of majority Si and C
elements.
3.2. Phase study
Fig. 5. shows the typical XRD spectra of microwave processed
EWAC + 3%SiC casting. The formation of various phases was
observed in composite casting during XRD analysis. The presence
of SiC, Ni3S2, Ni, Cr7C3, Ni3C, FeNi3, and Ni3Si phases were observed
at different 2-thetha values. During formation of composite cast-
ing, SiC gets dissociated in Si and C [16,20]. The free Si particles
react with Ni element to form silicides of Ni such as Ni3Si2 and Ni3-
Si corresponding to 44.50° and 50.94° respectively. Further Nickel
and Chromium present in EWAC powder might react with free C
from SiC lead to formation of Ni3C and Cr7C3 at 78.74° and 47.17°
respectively. Ni and SiC phases were also observed at 44.48° and
35.69° respectively. During the strong microwave heating the Fe
Ni C P Mn Si
Bal. 0.21 _ _ 2.7
0.003 29.7 _ _ Bal.
2
Saloni, G. Singh, Dinesh et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 1. SEM and EDS images of (a, c) EWAC powder; (b, d) SiC powder.

Table 2
Various process parameters used in microwave casting.

Process parameters Description

Applicator Cavity Charcoal type multimode microwave
oven
Operating frequency and power 2.45 GHz and 900 W
Preheating temperature of the 180 °C
powder
Powder used EWAC and SiC powders
Susceptor Charcoal powder
Mould cavity Graphite mould cavity
Separator Graphite Sheet (1 mm thickness)

Fig. 2. Detailed mechanism of formation of MMC through microwave heating [33]

elements present in EWAC powder react with Ni element to FeNi3

phase corresponding to 52.20o..

3.3. Microhardness and porosity measurement

Microhardness of casting plays an important role in its overall

performance. As discussed in the phase analysis study, that during
microwave heating, presence of various hard phases like SiC, Ni3-
Si2, FeNi3 was observed, which could result in the higher hardness
of microwave castings. Also, SiC itself has higher value of inherent Fig. 3. (a) Formation of MMC casting inside graphite cavity; (b) Back scattered
microhardness. Addition of SiC based ceramics inside Ni matrix electronic image of MMC casting.

3
Saloni, G. Singh, Dinesh et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 4. EDS analysis at (a) corresponding to Ni matrix at point X; (b) corresponding to SiC reinforcement at point Y in Fig. 3 (b).

readings were taken acr3oss different points of castings. It was

observed that average microhardness of the EWAC + 3% SiC based
casting was 596 ± 65 HV Fig. 6, which was approximately 1.5 times
higher than EWAC casting [20] produced through microwave heat-
ing. high standard deviation observed in microhardness readings
casting was resulted from the presence of hard and soft particles

Fig. 5. XRD spectrum showing formation of various phases inside microwave

processed casting.

resulted in increase in microhardness of overall composite casting.

To justify this fact, Vicker’s microhardness measurement across the Fig. 6. Microhardnes comparison of microwave processed EWAC and EWAC + 3%
casting samples were carried out at a load of 300 g for 20 sec. Six SiC.

4
Saloni, G. Singh, Dinesh et al.
in the casting, due to which indent fall upon casting showed large
and lower deformation. Higher hardness of composite casting can
make it useful for wear resistance applications. Further, porosity
of composite casting was observed as 0.96%, which was higher
than EWAC based casting.
4. Conclusions
Microwave casting of metal ceramic based composite was suc-
cessfully produced through MHH route at 2.45 GHz and 900 W.
The developed castings were characterized through various metal-
lurgical and mechanical methods and following conclusions were
drawn:
The microstructral results show that the casting was free from
any kind of visible cracks and reinforced ceramic particles were
randomly dispersed in cellular shaped Ni based matrix. Crackless
casting and cellular structure of Ni matrix confirm the volumetric
heating characteristics of microwaves.
High temperure generation during microwave heating leads to
formation of various carbides and intermetallic phases in the com-
posite casting, which result in the higher microhardness of the
composite castings. The higher microhardness of the composite
casting makes it useful for wear resistance applications.
The average value of porosity of casting was 0.96%, which is
although small, but higher than that of EWAC based casting. The
presence of SiC reinforced particles results in the higher value of
porosity in the composite casting.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Saloni: Project administration, Investigation, Resources, Data
curation, Visualization, Writing - original draft. Gurjot Singh:
Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Visualization. Dinesh:
Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Visualization. Sarbjeet
Kaushal: Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing - review
& editing, Visualization, Conceptualization, Methodology,
Supervision.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
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