Mechanical Properties of Aluminum/fly Ash Composites Produced by Hot Extrusion

This research aims to investigate mechanical properties of aluminium matrix composites reinforced with fly ash (AMC/Fly ash) produced using hot extrusion. AMC/ly ash was prepared from aluminium fine powder as matrix and fly ash as reinforcement. The various amount of fly ash of 5%, 7,5%, 10%, 12,5% and 15%wt were added to the aluminium fine powder. Each composition was mixed using rotary mixer for 3 hours. The mixture was compacted using uniaxial pressing with a pressure of 100MPa to produce green body. The green body was hot extruded with an extrusion ratio of 0,25 andtemperature of 600°C. Bending strength, Vickers hardness, wear rate and porosity of the AMC/fly ash were measured. The microstructure was observed using SEM. The results show that mechanical properties of the composites such as bending strength and Vickers hardness increase, porosity and wear rate decrease with increasing fly ash content up to 12,5wt%. Above 12,5wt% of fly ash those mechanical properties of composites seems to be inverse. The properties of AMC/12,5wt% fly ash produced usinghot extrusion from green body showing the best properties in term of the bending strength, Vickers hardness, porosity and wear resistance, thae are 302 MPa; 79 VHN; 0.73% and 0,0095 mg/(MPa.m). respectively.