Mechanical Characterization of Aluminium Metal Matrix Composite Reinforced with Aloe vera powder

In the recent years metal matrix composites (MMCs) attracted the researchers more as they become one of the most important structural materials depending on the requirement. Specifically, the particulate reinforced Aluminium metal matrix composites have received significant attention due to the improved mechanical and tribological properties such as strength, stiffness, impact resistance, wear resistance etc. The ceramic particles such as silicon carbide and aluminium oxide are the most widely used for reinforcement of aluminium matrix. In the recent times, the growing concern of manufacturing industries is to use cost effective reinforced Aluminium metal matrix composites for meeting their production rates with least cost considerations without sacrificing the specific properties. In this context, several attempts made by the researchers to use various materials such as graphite, red mud, bagass ash, rice husk ash, fly ash etc for reinforcement of Aluminium metal matrix. In this paper an attempt has been made to employ Aloe vera powder as a reinforcement material for Aluminium metal matrix composites as it is readily available less denser eco-friendly material at low cost and it could be the alternative to fly ash in respect of better physical and mechanical properties. In the present work stir casting method is employed for preparing the specimens of Aluminium matrix composite with fly ash reinforcement as well as Aluminium matrix composite with aloe vera reinforcement. An experimental study has been carried on mechanical characterization of aluminium metal matrix composites using fly ash and aloe vera as reinforcement materials separately. The findings of the experimental investigation reveal that there is a significant improvement in mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength and impact strength when aloe vera used as reinforcement material to that of fly ash. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.