Microstructure and particle size effects on selected mechanical properties of waste glass-reinforced aluminium matrix composites

Abstract

The development of new lightweight engineering materials with highly improved mechanical properties has been a thought-provoking issue of materials engineering lately. The attempt being made by the industrial and academic bodies has engendered the shift to composite materials over conventional ones. Aluminium reinforced composites are now being used in the transportation industries such as automobile and aerospace. Waste glass is a hard ceramic material which is majorly made up of silica, it is cheap, available and can serve as a replacement for costly reinforcement like silica, silicon carbide and titanium carbide. As a result, this research studied the effect of stir casting parameters (weight fraction of reinforcement and particle size) on the physical and mechanical properties of aluminium Al 6061/waste glass composites. The results obtained showed that density and fracture toughness of the samples reduced with an increase in weight fraction and particle size of waste glass. Brinell hardness improved progressively with increase in the weight fraction of waste glass and a reduction in particle size. Tensile strength improved from 0 to 8 wt% after which a reduction was noted at 10 wt% for samples reinforced with −6 µm particle size while 6 wt% reinforcement had the best tensile strength for samples reinforced with −13 µm and –23 µm particles sizes. The morphology examined showed the interfacial interaction between matrix and reinforcement in relation to mechanical properties. The study established the effectiveness of the composites as compared to the pure matrix which made them better candidate materials for various engineering applications like automobiles.