Hyderabad: GITAM awards PhD to Saritha in Mechanical Engineering

The GITAM Deemed-to-be University has awarded Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering to P.Saritha for her thesis ‘Mechanical and Fatigue behavior of aluminum based metal matrix composites’ submitted under the guidance of Prof. A.Satyadevi, Department of Aerospace Engineering, School of Technology, GITAM, Hyderabad.

Aluminum alloys such as 7075, which are extensively used in aircraft structures, render them highly susceptible to corrosion. Corrosion can adversely affect aircraft structural integrity since fatigue cracks can nucleate from corrosion pits and grow at an accelerated rate in a corrosive environment.

Many engineering machines and mechanical components are subjected to fluctuating stresses, taking place at relatively high frequencies. Under these conditions, failure is found to occur, which leads to the fabrication of an improved fatigue testing machine.

In this work, an attempt has been made to fabricate metal matrix composites with Al7075 as base metal and Zirconium reinforcements in the variation of weight percentage as 1%, 2%, and 3%, respectively. Hybrid composites were also fabricated with Al7075 as base metal, Silicon carbide in the variation of weight percentage as 5%,10%, and 15%, Molybdenum disulfide kept 3% constant added as reinforcements using stir casting technique. For the study, the microstructure of the fabricated composite materials SEM analysis has been carried out.

Prof. D.S.Rao, Pro Vice-Chancellor, GITAM, Hyderabad, DVVSR Varma, Resident Director, Prof. N.Seetaramaiah, Associate Director, School of Technology, and Heads of various engineering & basic science departments and faculty appreciated Saritha on her achievement.