Production and characterization of aluminium matrix composite with mixture of silicon carbide and groundnut shell ash as reinforcement for automotive application

Abstract

The mechanical behaviour of Al6063 alloy reinforced with a hybrid of silicon carbide (SiC) and groundnut shell ash (GSA) was investigated to establish the possibility of developing low-cost, high-performance material for automotive application. SiC and GSA particles were utilized to prepare 3g, 6g, 9g and 12g of the reinforcing phase, Al 6063 alloy was employed as the matrix using a double stir casting technique. To characterize the composites, Vickers hardness, compressive strength and microstructure examination were conducted. The results show that the composite with 12g reinforcement has Vickers Hardness value of 67.69 for SiC reinforced and 63.31 for SiC+ GSA reinforced composite indicating a 6.91% reduction in hardness compared to the SiC reinforced composite. The compressive Strength of the composite increased with increase in SiC and decreased with increase in GSA for 6g reinforcement, the compressive strength decreased by 3.15% in the SiC+GSA reinforced composite as compare to SiC reinforced composite. The reduction in hardness value and compressive strength can be attributed to the presence of refractory oxides which is the dominant constituent in GSA and are noted to have lower hardness and compressive strength in comparison to SiC particles. The microstructure reveals that the reinforcing particles (SiC, GSA) were visible and fairly well distributed in the Al 6063 alloy matrix. From the results obtained, GSA has shown a great potential to serve as a partial replacement for SiC in the development of low cost - high performance aluminium hybrid composite for automobile components application.