Microstructure, Mechanical Characteristics, and Wear Performance of Spark Plasma Sintered TiB2-Si3N4 as Affected by B4N Doping

Balasubramanian Ramesh; Essmat Showman; S A Muhammed Abraar; Kuldeep Kumar Saxena; Mohammed Y Tharwan; Naif Alsaadi; Sharaf Al Sofyani; Ammar H Elsheikh

doi:10.3390/ma15207096

Microstructure, Mechanical Characteristics, and Wear Performance of Spark Plasma Sintered TiB₂-Si₃N₄ as Affected by B₄N Doping

Materials (Basel). 2022 Oct 12;15(20):7096. doi: 10.3390/ma15207096.

Authors

Balasubramanian Ramesh¹, Essmat Showman², S A Muhammed Abraar³, Kuldeep Kumar Saxena⁴, Mohammed Y Tharwan⁵, Naif Alsaadi⁶, Sharaf Al Sofyani⁷, Ammar H Elsheikh⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mohamed Sathak Engineering College, Kilakarai 623806, Tamil Nadu, India.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Blue Nile, Damazeen 26613, Blue Nile State, Sudan.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, St. Joseph's Institute of Technology, Chennai 600119, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, GLA University, Mathura 281406, Uttar Pradesh, India.
⁵ Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Jazan University, KSA, 114 Almarefah Rd. 45142, Jazan 82874, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Rabigh Branch, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Northern Border University, Arar 91431, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Department of Production Engineering and Mechanical Design, Tanta University, Tanta 31527, Egypt.

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the effect of boron nitride (B₄N) additive (3-6%) on the densification, microstructure, mechanical properties, and wear performance of TiB₂-15%Si₃N₄ and TiB₂-30%Si₃N₄ sintered composites. When the B₄N (3%) was added to the TiB₂-30Si₃N₄ composite, the density increased to 99.5%, hardness increased to 25.2 MPa, and the fracture toughness increased to 4.62 MPam^1/2. Microstructural analysis shows that in situ phases such as TiB₂ help to improve the relative mechanical characteristics. However, raising the B₄N additive to 6% in the above-sintered composite reduces the composites' relative density and hardness. The tested sintered composites demonstrated that their superior wear resistance can be attributed to their increased density and hardness.

Keywords: densification; mechanical characteristics; microstructure; spark plasma sintering; wear.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.