INVESTIGATION ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF ALFA COMPOSITE IN PRE AND POST HEAT TREATED CONDITIONS

Of the many types of particulate reinforcements fly ash is one type that is being used from the recent past to develop the composites. In the current research fly ash is reinforced in the aluminium alloy AA2024 to develop ALFA (ALuminium Fly Ash) composites. The stir casting technique is employed in the development of the said composite as this technique is economical and would produce a composite with fairly uniform distribution of the fly ash reinforcement in the alloy matrix. The fly ash was added in 2.5 and 5 % by weight to the molten metal. Increase in the percentage weight of fly ash reinforcement resulted improvement in the mechanical properties. The composite is tested for hardness, tensile strength and wear performance under pre-heat treatment, as quenched and in peak hardened conditions. The peak hardened composite showed a superior hardness, tensile strength and wear resistance than the others