Assessment of Surface Roughness in EDM of RHA, Cu and Mg Reinforced Hybrid MMC using L27 Taguchi’s Orthogonal Array Technique

Abstract

The goal of this research is to develop Al alloy 6061 matrix composites of lower cost with higher performance with the using agricultural waste Rice Husk Ash (RHA) as a major reinforcement. The weight percentage of RHA at 6,8 and 10 % is used in the basic matrix of Al6061 alloy. The copper (Cu) and magnesium (Mg) are kept at constant level i.e 3% and 1 % of weight(wt) respectively. The Al-matrix hybrid composites have been developed by stir casting method. The investigation has been made to explore the effect of different weight percentage of RHA reinforced hybrid composite and other machining factors on Surface Roughness(SR) for machining of Al matrix hybrid composites using electric discharge machining (EDM) by Taguchi’s approach. An L27 Orthogonal Array (OA) for 6 different factors each at 3 stages, has been selected to perform the experiments. Optimal combination of SR-related parameters of machining and the significant parameters has been highlighted. Machined surfaces have been characterised by SEM micrographs