Optimization and Prediction of Mechanical Characteristics on Vacuum Sintered Ti-6Al-4V-SiCp Composites Using Taguchi’s Design of Experiments, Response Surface Methodology and Random Forest Regression

Abstract

Today, among emerging materials, metal matrix composites, due to their excellent properties, have an increasing demand in the field of aerospace and automotive industries. However, the difficulties associated with the processing of these composites have been a challenge to manufacturing industries due to inhomogeneous mixing of the matrix with the reinforcement, oxidation, and microstructural phase transformation during processing. Hence, in this paper, Ti-6Al-4V reinforced with SiCp has been processed through a specially developed compression molding, followed by vacuum sintering. The main objective of this paper was to determine the favorable vacuum sintering conditions for Ti-6Al-4V reinforced with 15 Wt. % SiCp composites under a different aging temperature (°C), aging time (h), heating rate (°C/min), and cooling rate (°C /min) to improve the process output parameters such as the hardness, surface roughness, and to reduce the porosity using Taguchi’s Design of Experiments. Finally, the response surface methodology and random forest regression have been used to predict the optimum process output parameters. From the extensive experimentation and understanding gained from Taguchi’s Design of Experiments, the response surface methodology and random tree regression approach can be successfully used to predict the hardness, porosity, and surface roughness during the processing of Ti-6Al-4V-SiCp composites.