International Journal of Lightweight Materials and Manufacture 4 (2021) 449e459

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International Journal of Lightweight Materials and Manufacture

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Original Article

A study on mechanical properties of tungsten carbide reinforced

magnesium metal matrix composites for the application of piston
P. Karuppusamy a, *, K. Lingadurai b, V. Sivananth c, S. Arulkumar a
a
Department of Automobile Engineering, Dr.Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology, Pollachi, Tamil Nadu, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anna University College of Engineering, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India
c
Engineering Department, Mechanical / Industrial Section, Ibri College of Technology, Ibri, Oman

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

Article history: To improve the efficiency, one of the important strategies adopted by automotive manufacturing in-
Received 31 August 2020 dustries is the lightweight materials usage. Magnesium based metal matrix composites (MMC) have the
Received in revised form prospective to meet the demanded requirements. In this study, AZ91 based MMCs reinforced with 1.5
3 May 2021
and 3.0 wt % of tungsten carbide (WC) particulates were investigated as the alternatives to existing
Accepted 20 June 2021
Available online 10 July 2021
material. The samples were then solutionised at 420
C and artificially aged at 175
C to improve their
mechanical properties. Characterization revealed that there were the reductions in tensile strength
whereas the enhancement in compressive strength with WC addition into the matrix. At product level
Keywords:
Magnesium
experimental analysis, quasi-static load testing of pistons showed that AZ91 alloy piston resisted a load of
Tungsten carbide 10 kN. WC addition improved the strength of the pistons by 30% and 70% (approx.). It encouraged the
Metal matrix composites magnesium-based materials usage for piston application with a maximum weight reduction of 35%.
Mechanical properties © 2021 The Authors. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This
Piston is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/
Quasi-static load test 4.0/).

1. Introduction To utilize the benefits of the attributes, specific strength and

To achieve savings in operating cost through optimized energy
consumption, there is a continuous requirement of lightweight
structures. Magnesium is the lightest metal used in the structural
applications and has hexagonal close-packed (HCP) crystal struc-
ture with a density of 1.74 g/cm3. It shows 36%, 61% and 77% lesser
densities compared to its contenders, aluminium (r ¼ 2.70 g/cm3),
titanium (r ¼ 4.51 g/cm3) and steel (r ¼ 7.87 g/cm3). It also has a
higher specific strength (s/r) than the mentioned structural ma-
terials [1]. Among the magnesium alloy system, one of the most
widely used is MgeAleZn system [2]. Even though it has good
castability and strengthening effects, their poor strength, wear
resistance, corrosion resistance, low formability, poor ductility and
poor tension-compression asymmetry limited their use in the
structural application [3].
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: karuppusamy.auto@mcet.in (P. Karuppusamy), lingadurai@
gmail.com (K. Lingadurai), vsivananth@gmail.com (V. Sivananth), arulkumar@
mcet.in (S. Arulkumar).
Peer review under responsibility of Editorial Board of International Journal of
Lightweight Materials and Manufacture
low-density of magnesium based alloys tailor-made materials are
developed [4]. One of the tailor-made materials, composite is an
anisotropic and inhomogeneous material. By dispersing the hard
particles and/or fibres into a monolithic or alloy metal, metal ma-
trix composites (MMCs) are formed. Gupta et al. [5] conducted a
review on magnesium composites and concluded that the devel-
opment of magnesium composites affords better hardness, tensile,
compression, fatigue and wear properties. The reinforcements such
as SiC, TiC, TiB2, Al2O3, Y2O3, TiO2, Mg2Si, AlN, B4C, CNT, WS etc.
have been commonly used to increase the mechanical properties of
monolithic Mg [6,7]. Since, magnesium alloys have excellent
fluidity and less susceptibility to porosity due to hydrogen
entrapment during the solidification, casting process was selected
for fabricating MMCs. Producing composites through the stir cast-
ing is one of the most attractive ways as it has low fabrication cost,
casting capacity, uniform distribution of reinforcement in the ma-
trix and easy adaptability [2]. Banerjee et al. [8] fabricated the WC
reinforced AZ31 MMC using stir casting technique and found uni-
form particles distribution. The addition reinforcement enhanced
the compressive strength [9] and decreased the tensile strength
[10]. AZ91 MMC fabricated through the stir casting process had
better mechanical properties than the base alloy [11]. During the

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlmm.2021.06.007
2588-8404/© 2021 The Authors. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
P. Karuppusamy, K. Lingadurai, V. Sivananth et al. International Journal of Lightweight Materials and Manufacture 4 (2021) 449e459

Fig. 1. Piston e cylinder arrangement.

Table 1 Fig. 3. Casted MMC bars.

Specification of the air compressor.

Parameter Specification
resulted in more precipitation of Mg17Al12 phase that enhanced the
Model Fracu-20D/25
hardness of the matrix [13]. Aged heat treatment of AZ91 MMC
Power 2.0HP
Capacity 210 L/min refined the microstructure and improved the ultimate compressive
Maximum Pressure 0.8 MPa strength at the cost of ductility [14].
Speed 2850 rpm It is acknowledged that there are few reports regarding the
Net weight 23 kg effect of WC reinforcement and heat treatment on the mechanical
properties of AZ91 magnesium alloy. Especially at the product
level investigation, very few studies have been conducted. In the
external loading on the composites, an internal stress develops present study, WC reinforced AZ91 was fabricated by stir casting
between reinforcement and the matrix that resists the slip in the process and then solutionisation followed by artificial aged heat
matrix and increase both the strain hardening and compressive treatment was carried out. For product level investigation, an air
strength [12]. The presences of reinforcement and Mg17Al12 phases compressor piston was considered. Typical arrangement of piston
act as obstacles to develop the slips in the matrix which strengthen inside the cylinder is shown in Fig. 1 and its specification is
the composite during compression. T6 heat treatment of AZ91/WC tabulated in Table 1.

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of stir casting setup.

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Table 2 2.1. Preparation of specimens

Alloying elements and reinforcement %.

Designation Chemical Composition wt.% (Total 100%) Reinforcement wt. % Vacuum incorporated stir casting process with bottom pouring
Al Zn Si Mn Mg WC
arrangement was used to fabricate the MMC samples in this study and
its schematic arrangement is shown in Fig. 2. To cast cylindrical
AZ91 8.7 0.7 0.1 0.1 Balance 0
specimen with 30 mm diameter and 200 mm length, a vertical mild
AZ91/1.5WC 8.9 0.7 0.1 0.1 Balance 1.5
AZ91/3.0WC 8.7 0.8 0.1 0.1 Balance 3.0 steel mould having the dimensions F30 mm  200 mm was fabri-
cated. Initially, the base materials for AZ91 alloy such as Mg, Al and Zn
were placed in the steel crucible and 0.05 wt % of manganese (Mn) was
also added to remove Fe inclusions. As the molten magnesium has a
greater affinity with atmospheric oxygen, there is a possibility of
oxidation and flammability. To eliminate the undesirable reaction,
below the atmospheric pressure was created inside the crucible. Then,
the inert Argon gas was continuously supplied and above the atmo-
spheric pressure inside the crucible was maintained to avoid the ox-
ygen entrapment. By purging the inert gas, the degassing had been
done. To melt and complete the homogenization, the crucible tem-
perature was raised to 750
C and sustained for 30 min. Since the
semi-solid stir casting (SSC) process had eliminated the agglomeration,
floating, settling of reinforcing particles, and reactions between rein-
forcing phase and molten matrix materials, it is followed to cast both
the specimens and products. So, the temperature was brought down
and maintained at 585
C. Poddar et al. [15], also fabricated the Mg-
MMC through the SSC process with the same temperature. The pre-
heating of WC particulates having a diameter of 200 nm was done
which removes the unstable impurities and two-step mixing method
was used to improve the wettability between matrix material and
reinforcement as described by Aravindan et al. [16]. With the help of
mechanical stirrer, the molten metal had been stirred at 500 RPM.
Now, the preheated particulates were released into the semisolid
slurry and stirred continuously for 20 min.
Finally, the slurry was allowed to spill into a piston die which
was kept in the die chamber under Argon gas atmosphere. Thus,
MMC specimens (Fig. 3) with 1.5 and 3.0 wt % of WC were pro-
duced using SSC. The chemical compositions of the fabricated
samples were tabulated in Table 2. Conventional heat treatment
which involves solution treatment, followed by quenching and
Fig. 4. Tensile test specimen.
age hardening was carried out in an electric furnace as follows.
The furnace used to fabricate the magnesium MMC was
2. Experimental details employed for heat treatments also. It was modified to supply and
hold the oil during quenching. The heat treatments processes
In order to perform the numerical analysis of AZ91 and MMC with higher temperature were accomplished under the inert gas
pistons, there is the need of mechanical properties of the standard atmosphere.
specimens. Hence, initially only the standard samples were fabri- Amini et al. [17], described that homogenous structure of the
cated as per the requirement of ASTM standard. Then, the pistons magnesium a phase was obtained when AZ91 samples sol-
were manufactured to study the performance of MMCs at a product utionised at 420
C for 24 h. Therefore, die cast AZ91 and MMC
level, and tested for the compression behaviour. The details of specimens in as cast condition were solutionised at tempera-
experimentation and testing are discussed in this section. tures of 420
C for 10 h, oil quenched at 60
C and then artificially

Fig. 5. (a) Exploded view of the mould (b) fabricated mould.

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P. Karuppusamy, K. Lingadurai, V. Sivananth et al. International Journal of Lightweight Materials and Manufacture 4 (2021) 449e459

Fig. 6. Fabrication of piston e process flow.

Fig. 7. Process flow diagram of piston machining.

aged at 175
C for 20 h. The composites were characterized by

energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and XRD analyses.

2.2. Tensile and compression characterization

The tensile test samples were prepared according to ASTM

Fig. 8. Fabricated AZ91 and MMC pistons.
E08 standard dimensions as shown in Fig. 4 from the cast
specimens. Tensile tests were conducted on the test bars using
250 kN servo hydraulic Instron Universal Testing Machine. The
cylindrical compression test specimens were prepared as sug-
gested in ASTM E9e89a standard from the cast MMC samples. The
dimension of specimen is f13.0 mm  25 mm as prescribed for
short length one. Compression tests were conducted on the
specimens using an Instron PL25R structural system with 25 kN
capacity. Both tensile and compression tests were conducted at a
rate of 2 mm/min using a load cell of 50 kN capacity.

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P. Karuppusamy, K. Lingadurai, V. Sivananth et al. International Journal of Lightweight Materials and Manufacture 4 (2021) 449e459

Fig. 9. Fixture for piston testing.

Table 3 specimens was followed to fabricate MMC pistons and T6 heat

Fixture details. treatment also. The process flow diagram of the machining pro-
Parameters Specification cesses is shown in Fig. 7.
Material Mild Steel
The machining process started with open end bore rough
Weight 17 kg machining which was followed by rough turning of outer diameter of
Base plate 300 mm  300 mm  10 mm the piston and groove forming. These three operations were carried
Top plate 150 mm  150 mm  10 mm out in a simple lathe. Using drilling machine, piston pin boring was
Pillars F26 mm  300 mm (4 nos.)
done which is a rough also machining process that allows entering the
reamer later. The hole was then reamed a number of times to attain
2.3. Manufacturing of pistons the final size required. Finish turning of the piston outer diameter,
open end bore and groove finishing were completed with the help of
In order to complete the fabrication, the steps involved are CNC machining centre. Final size of the piston outer diameter being
preparation of CAD model of exiting piston, preparation of mould machined was accomplished by grinding process and it provides good
for casting, casting of piston, heat treatment, machining process surface finish. The manufactured pistons are shown in Fig. 8.
and surface finishing. To fabricate the pistons, a permanent mould
was designed and manufactured as shown in Fig. 5. Manufacturing 2.4. Quasi-static load testing
of magnesium alloy based pistons comprises of two primary
manufacturing processes, casting and machining. The schematic of Quasi-static loading test is one of the mechanical testing
process flow is shown in Fig. 6. Before melting, the mould was methods in which a test specimen is subjected to gradually
placed inside the die chamber. The procedure used to fabricate test changing prescribed forces or deformations by means of

Fig. 10. Quasi-static load testing of piston in Instron PL25R structural system.

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P. Karuppusamy, K. Lingadurai, V. Sivananth et al. International Journal of Lightweight Materials and Manufacture 4 (2021) 449e459

hydraulic actuators. Inertial forces within the structures are not

considered in this method. To conduct the quasi-static loading
test to quantify the failure load of the pistons, a specific fixture
was designed and fabricated as shown in Fig. 9. As the load was
to be applied on the piston head, the degree of freedoms were to
be arrested at piston pin hole and piston skirt. By considering
these, the fixture was designed as shown. There two plates were
used in this fixture, top and base plates. Top plate played a vital
role in this fixture arrangement as it held the product firmly. The
base plate was the support structure to tolerate the entire fixture
weight. It rested on the test bed and provided the strength to the
structure. Four circular rods were used as pillars to support the
top plate and they transmitted the load acting on the top plate to
the base plate. The basic fixture details are provided in Table 3.
An Instron PL25R structural system with 25 kN capacity was
deployed in the experimental analysis. The fixture with
machined part was mounted on the test rig bed and all the de-
grees of freedoms were arrested as discussed earlier.
The test rig with fixture mounted was presented in Fig. 10 (a).
When air is compressed inside the compressor cylinder, the pressure is
gradually increased and therefore the downward load acting on the
piston head is also increased. Hence, the load was applied downwards
on the piston head in quasi-static loading testing as mentioned in
Fig. 10 (b). The pistons were loaded continuously to the maximum
capacity of the machine was reached to find the strength of the piston.
DAQ system documented the details of applied load and the defor-
mation. Finally, the fractured surfaces were examined to study the
failure mechanism.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Surface characterization

EDS analysis of the fabricated as-cast AZ91 alloy, AZ91/1.5WC

and AZ91/3.0WC samples are shown in Fig. 11 that confirmed the
presence of respective alloy elements and reinforcements. SEM
images are used to find the distribution of the particles in the
matrix alloy (Fig. 12). The intensities for W and C are observed in
EDS of MMCs whereas they are not found in the base alloy AZ91.
SEM images are used to find the distribution of the particles and
Mg17Al12. The spectrum analysis of MMC samples (Fig. 13) revealed
that the intensity of the secondary phase (b e Mg17Al12) had been
increased as the increase of WC particles and the intensity for WC
was observed only in composites (see Fig. 14).

3.2. Tensile and compression properties

The tensile stress-strain curves of heat treated AZ91 and its

MMCs are presented in Fig. 15. It reveals that there was a sub-
stantial improvement in failure strain of AZ91 composites and it
increases with the weight percentage of WC. The increase of
failure strain (ductility) of composites can be mainly attributed to
uniform distribution of reinforcements, grain refinement, and
precipitation of finer secondary phases [10]. The grain refinement
in the materials having HCP structure benefits in ductility
Fig. 11. EDS analysis of as-cast samples.
enhancement [18]. However, the reinforcement of WC particu-
lates reduced the 0.2% tensile yield strength and ultimate tensile
strength of AZ91 matrix. The reduction in TYS and UTS of the But the addition of reinforcement cost the compression ductility
composites revealed that WC present in the matrix alloy did not of the base alloy. Nguyen & Gupta [9] also observed the similar
block the motion of dislocations. The room temperature trends in the compression test plots of magnesium based com-
compression test results of unreinforced alloy and AZ91/WC posites. It is seen from the plots that there is concave nature in the
MMCs stress-strain curves are represented in Fig. 16. They reveal curves which could be attributed mostly to twinning governed
that there was a substantial improvement in compressive yield deformation of the materials.
strength (CYS) and ultimate compressive strength (UCS) of AZ91 The tensile and compressive properties of MMCs are tabu-
composites and it increased with the weight percentage of WC. lated in Table 4. The ultimate tensile strength of the base alloy

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P. Karuppusamy, K. Lingadurai, V. Sivananth et al.
Fig. 12. SEM analysis of as-cast samples.
was reduced with the addition of WC addition whereas the ul-
timate compressive strength was increased. These results are in
agreement with the investigations reported by Anil Kumar et al.
[19] and Haghshenas [20]. Tensile failure strain was increased by
approximately 56% and 65% when compared the value of base
alloy. While considering ultimate compressive strength, AZ91/
1.5WC and AZ91/3.0 showed 8% and 14% better strength
respectively.
Fig. 13. XRD analysis of heat treated AZ91 and MMC.
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International Journal of Lightweight Materials and Manufacture 4 (2021) 449e459
3.3. Fracture behaviour
Figs 17 and 18 show the fractured samples of AZ91 and MMC
after tensile and compression tests. While considering the ten-
sile fracture, fracture surface of base alloy is typically upright to
the principal stress whereas the composite surface is sheared at
angle 45
approximately. It means that the addition of WC par-
ticles changed the nature of fracture from typical mixed brittle
and ductile mode (AZ91) to shear-type fracture mode (MMC).
The figures witnessed that both all the samples broken into two
parts with fractured surfaces having inclined at an angle of 45

approximately to the applied compressive load axis. Hence, the
failure mechanisms under compressive loading were same for
both AZ91 and its MMCs.
3.4. Quasi-static loading test results
The inbuilt c applied force and the system is not fed with any
standard cross-sectional area to determine the stress induced.
Therefore, the testing machine plots only the applied force
against the deformation. The quasi-static load tested pistons are
shown in Fig. 19 and the plotted applied force e deformation
curves are presented in the graph (Fig. 20). From the graph, it is
observed that T6 treated AZ91 alloy piston resisted the load of
10 kN (approx). AZ91/1.5WC/T6 and AZ91/3.0WC/T6 pistons
absorbed the applied load of 13 kN and 17 kN (approx) respec-
tively which were nearly 30% and 70% higher than the base alloy.
P. Karuppusamy, K. Lingadurai, V. Sivananth et al.
Fig. 14. SEM analysis of heat treated AZ91 and MMC.
Fig. 15. Tensile stress e strain curve.
The presence of reinforcement and hard secondary phase in the
composite pistons improved the load bearing ability of the
materials and restricted the crack development during testing.
Also, it is observed from graph that AZ91 piston showed the
higher ductility than that of commercially available piston and
the addition of hard reinforcements decreased the same.
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International Journal of Lightweight Materials and Manufacture 4 (2021) 449e459
Fig. 16. Compressive stress e strain curve.
When all pistons are subjected to the applied downward load,
the shearing had occurred at 45
to the direction of applied force
at the inner surface of the pin hole as shown in Fig. 21(a). Yuan
et al. [21], also observed that the inner wall of the piston pin hole
was easily susceptible to stress concentration during compres-
sion testing of the aluminium-silicon alloy piston and caused
P. Karuppusamy, K. Lingadurai, V. Sivananth et al. International Journal of Lightweight Materials and Manufacture 4 (2021) 449e459

Table 4
Tensile and compressive properties.

S. No. Material Designation Tensile Compression

TYS (MPa) TCS (MPa) Failure strain CYS (MPa) UCS (MPa) Failure strain

1 AZ91/T6 152 200 0.080 106 300 0.175

2 AZ91/1.5WC/T6 132 190 0.125 120 325 0.160
3 AZ91/3.0WC/T6 128 187 0.132 128 342 0.142

Fig. 17. Broken samples of AZ91 after (a) tensile (b) compression tests.

Fig. 18. Broken samples of AZ91/3.0WC (a) tensile (b) compression tests.

Fig. 19. Quasi-static load tested pistons.

further damage during piston operation. The precipitations of
secondary phases (b-Mg17Al12) were dispersed all over the
fractured surface. The stress concentration on the interfaces of
primary and secondary phases causes a severe plastic flow and
forms shear bands during compression that results in micro-
voids and fracture as shown in Fig. 21(b). On the other hand,
the reinforced particles hindered the plastic flow and restricted
the micro-voids to develop as a crack. The load exhibited by the
primary and secondary phase had been transferred to the
particulates. Due to the load transfer, the fracture occurred on
the interfaces between WC particles and alloy matrix. The
continuous load concentration sheared the particulates from the
surface. As a result, there were the deep cavities found in the
fractured surfaces of MMC pistons (Fig. 21(c and d)). And the
voids joined together and created the small cup-like dimple
rupture. AZ91/3.0WC/T6 had a more dimple rupture and deep
cavities than the AZ91/1.5WC/T6. Therefore, the shear fracture
was the primary mechanism that impelled during piston failure.

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Table 5
Porosity level of the pistons.

Material Designation Mass (g) Porosity %

Theoretical Actual

Al 6061 65.54 65.31 0.35

AZ91 42.85 42.13 1.68
AZ91/1.5WC 43.62 42.34 2.92
AZ91/3.0WC 44.40 43.04 3.07

of WC. Using, the volume and theoretical density, the theoretical

mass (mth) was calculated. Actual mass (mact) was determined us-
ing electronic weighing scale.

Fig. 20. Quasi-static load test results.

3.5. Mass and porosity analysis
The volume of the fabricated samples is determined as stated
by the ASTM C373-88 standard using Archimedes method. The
theoretical density of the samples can be calculated using the
rule mixture equation (1) [22]. The difference between the
theoretical density and true density is the porosity level of the
fabricated samples.
rMMC ¼ rAZ91 *vAZ91 þ rWC *vWC
where, rAZ91 is the density AZ91alloy, rWC is the density of WC,
vAZ91 is the volume fraction of AZ91 and vWC is the volume fraction
Porosity% ¼ ðmth  mact Þ = ðmth Þ (2)
Both theoretical and actual masses are tabulated in Table 5.
Porosity % of the samples was calculated using the equation (2).
Due to poor fluidity of hard particles present in the melt, MMCs
were more prone to shrinkage porosity [23]. From the table, it is
observed that the addition of reinforcement further increased
the porosity level of the product due to the high degree of
shrinkage on solidification of matrix material around the WC
particles. While comparing the masses of the products, there is a
possibility of weight reduction with minimum of 32% (AZ91/
3.0WC) and maximum of 35% (AZ91) for the selected specific
(1) application. Piston in reciprocating air compressor system con-
tributes to the inertial weight during the upward motion. As a
result, this reduction in weight directly influences the power
consumption.

Fig. 21. (a) Tested Piston (bed) SEM of fractured surfaces.

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P. Karuppusamy, K. Lingadurai, V. Sivananth et al.
4. Conclusions
➢ Using reverse engineering technique, CAD model of the existing
piston was developed and a split type mould was designed to
fabricate the pistons.
➢ Piston castings with magnesium alloy and MMCs were manu-
factured through stir casting process. A sequence of machining
operations was completed to get the finished product. Finally, T6
heat treatment was done with machined pistons.
➢ A test rig and a fixture for quasi-static load testing was fabri-
cated to conduct experimental investigations on the fabricated
magnesium-based pistons.
➢ AZ91/3.0WC/T6 showed approximately 70% improvement in
load bearing ability when compared to base alloy. Hence,
magnesium based MMCs could be used for air compressor pis-
ton application in place of aluminium alloys.
➢ The experimental results showed that all pistons made of AZ91
and its MMCs can withstand the operating load. And, there is a
possibility of considerable weight savings up to 35% for the
selected piston application.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that there is no conflicts of interest.
All co-authors have seen and agree with the contents of the
manuscript and there is no financial interest to report. We certify
that the submission is original work and is not under review at any
other publication.
Acknowledgment
We thank the management of Dr. MCET, Pollachi, for providing
the excellent experimental setup which is used for this work. The
authors wish to express their gratitude to MCET - Centre for Design
Analysis & Testing (C-DAT), Pollachi, for their technical support in
carrying out this experiment.
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