Abstract

Aluminium Metal Matrix Composites has continually generated a lot of interest due to the versatility of its application, lower cost of production and its outstanding properties. This study was carried out on the mechanical behavior of an aluminium 6063 based composite reinforced with bamboo based leaf (BLA) and rice husk ash (RHA). The chemical composition of each of the Al?Mg?Si alloy, BLA and RHA was determined; different kinds of characterization and microstructural analysis were also carried out to investigate the mechanical properties. The ultimate tensile strength values of the developed composites revealed that 10wt% reinforced composites are superior to that of unreinforced alloy. Similarly, the yield strength values of the reinforced composites are superior to that of unreinforced alloy. 78.4% and 80.0% improvement were observed in comparison with unreinforced alloy. The % elongation values were invariant to the weight ratio of BLA and RHA. Among all the composites investigated, 10wt% composites reinforced with 75% BLA and 25% RHA together with 10wt% composites reinforced with equal percentage of BLA and RHA exhibited the highest hardness value of 46.4 and 42.2 respectively. Also, from the optical microstructures of the Al-BLA/RHA?8wt% and 10% hybrid composite, it is observed that the reinforcing particles (BLA and RHA) are visible and clearly delineated in the microstructure. The particles are fairly well distributed in the Al matrix and signs of particle clusters are minimal.

Keywords

aluminium, hybrid mmcs, organic silica, bamboo leaf ash, composites, rice husk ash, Al 6063