The utilisation of coconut shell ash in production of hybrid composite: Microstructural characterisation and performance analysis

Abstract

Agriculture waste-reinforced hybrid metal matrix composites (HMMCs) have developed as a potentially green, productive, economical, and ideal replacement for particle-reinforced composites. A number of industries, including aerospace, automotive, and packaging, have demonstrated a keen interest in the development of new and innovative composites in a sustainable manner, is bio-waste particulate reinforced composite. The effect of reinforcements is investigated in the current research work, which employs the ultrasonic stir casting method with SiC (ranging from 3 to 9% by weight) and coconut shell ash (5% by weight in equal proportion) as reinforcement along with the aluminium matrix. With the two-stage ultrasonic stir casting process, the distribution of reinforcement in the aluminium matrix is ensured to be uniform. The microstructure evolution, mechanical and tribological behaviours were also evaluated to ascertain the integrity of fabricated composites. The XRD analysis confirms the reinforcements and oxide layer formed on the specimen surface. Currently, the fabricated composite improves monolithic alloy in terms of hardness and tensile strength approximately by 60% and 66%, respectively, while reducing wear rate by 51%. The nanoindentation investigation implies that the composites that have been developed have improved nanomechanical properties. Overall, using CSA along with SiC in HMMCs could be a potential product to reduce the usage of synthetic fiber and application design for economical products.