Processing Aluminum Fly Ash Composites via Parametric Analysis of Stir Casting
Keywords:
Fly ash, Aluminum metal matrix composite, Particle size, Casting temperature, Taguchi method.Abstract
Aluminum fly ash metal matrix composites are lightweight materials that find wide applications in the automotive as well as the aerospace engineering. Fly ash is a byproduct generated from combustion of coal in thermal power plants. Being a pollutant, finding worthwhile applications in the fields of construction and industrial materials behoves a service to the profession as well as the society. The resulting product is cheaper and may promise unprecedented properties because of refractory nature of this waste.
The present project presents the result of an experimental investigation on the hardness and wear properties of aluminum fly ash metal matrix composites synthesized via stir casting route. The influence of variable parameters, e.g., fly ash percentage (by weight), its particle size and the casting temperature were investigated during the experimentation, applying design of experiments. From experimental results and through analysis of variance (ANOVA) and F-test values, the significant factors were determined such as fly ash percentage (by weight), particle size and casting temperature.
According to the Taguchi quality design concept, a L9 orthogonal array was used to determine the S/N ratio, and hardness values analyzed by ANOVA to indicate the significant parameters. Experimental results have shown that the responses in this process can be improved effectively through this approach.
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