Effect of fly ash as reinforcement on mechanical properties of aluminum scrap based hybrid composite

Aluminum matrix composite (AMC) has been widely used in various industries such as Automotive, aerospace and marine. One of the constraints to fabricate AMC is the high costs involved. Fly ash is a coal combustion waste that have considerable potential as an alternative material for the manufacture of AMC. In this work, AMC was fabricated through stir casting methods, alumina and fly ash are utilized as reinforcement. Mechanical properties of the composite were analysed based on the results of impact test, tensile test and hardness test. Impact test revealed that the maximum energy absorbed of the AMC is 14.224 Joule with composition 8 wt% alumina and 12 wt% fly ash. Moreover, tensile strength and hardness testing result on AMC showed the similar tendency. Mechanical properties increase linearly with increasing the addition of fly ash. The maximum value was obtained at 133.74 MPa and 65.37 BHN for tensile strength and hardness number, respectively. Microstructural results also showed that there was grain refinement to the addition of fly ash composition, which supports the mechanical properties result