A Comparative study on mechanical properties of Al-SiO2 composites fabricated using rice husk silica in crystalline and amorphous form as reinforcement

Aluminium based metal matrix composites find wide spread technological applications owing to their properties such as low density, high strength to weight ratio and reasonable strength. Incorporation of ceramic reinforcements such as Al2O3, ZrO2, TiO2, TiB2, SiO2 etc. in different forms in the aluminium matrix provides good combination of strength and ductility. Though a lot of research work have been reported related to Al based composites, very limited information is available on Al-SiO2 composites. Considering the trend of research towards low cost manufacturing/fabrication through waste utilization, the present study was an effort to use rice husk silica (RHS) as cheap source of SiO2 for ceramic reinforcement. Accordingly, present study was focused on utilizing RHS for development of Al-SiO2 composites through powder metallurgy route. RHS obtained by heat treatment of clean rice husk at two different temperatures such as 6000 C (RHS1) and 10000 C (RHS2) were characterized through XRD. RHS1 was amorphous whereas RHS2 was crystalline in nature. Both the forms of silica was used for preparing Al-SiO2 composites separately by using powder metallurgy process. Various compositions and process parameters were optimized in order to establish a standard process with minimum processing steps. The mechanical properties of the developed Al-SiO2 composites fabricated using the above mentioned two varieties of RHS were studied and compared. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of International Conference on Emerging Trends in Materials and Manufacturing Engineering (IMME17).