Influence of Cow Horn Particles on the Hardness and Impact Properties of the Reinforced Recycled Aluminium Alloy

Abstract

Development of low cost metal alloys reinforced with waste materials such as agro- waste and industrial waste has been one of the major innovations in the area of material engineering. This aimed at producing engineering materials with improved properties without additional cost of techniques such as annealing and normalising. In this study, aluminium scraps from automobile parts (secondary aluminium) were used as principal material and reinforced with locally available inexpensive cow horn particulate (ago-wastes) of 3, 6, 9 and 12% by weight to produce an aluminium based composite. Hardness and impact strength of the aluminium alloy reinforced cow horn particulate (CHp) were studied. The results showed that the produced composite exhibits superior hardness value compared to the alloy metal. The hardness increases from 87.7 BHN to 101.4 BHN, 132.4 BHN, 134.4 BHN and 143 BHN with addition of 3%, 6%, 9% and 12%, weight of CHp into the aluminium alloy matrix, respectively. However, the composite displayed lower impact strength than the aluminium alloy and the strength reduces as the weight percentage of CHp in the composite increases. Addition of 3%, 6%, 9% and 12%, weight of CHp into the aluminium alloy reduced the impact value from 49.4 J to 36.76 J, 35.05 J, 33.68 J and 28.53, respectively. The X-ray diffraction analysis of the reinforced aluminium alloy revealed the presence of CHp without the formation of any other intermetallic compounds, good bonding between CHp and aluminium alloy, and absence of agglomeration of CHp in the aluminium alloy matrix.