MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MARBLE DUST REINFORCED ALUMINUM MATRIX STRUCTURAL COMPOSITES FABRICATED BY STIR CASTING PROCESS

The use of aluminium and its alloys in aerospace, transportation, automobile, and power transmission is growing these days because it has good corrosion resistance, is lightweight, and has high specific strength. But aluminium and its alloys have some drawbacks, such as low absolute strength at higher temperatures, low impact resistance, low hardness, etc. In this research, the aluminium metal matrix composite has been manufactured with the help of the stir casting technique to improve the aluminium alloy's mechanical properties. Where, Al6063 has been taken as the matrix material and the graphite (Gr) (2 wt.%), glass fibre (2 wt.%), boron carbide (B4C) (4 wt.%), and marble dust (2 wt.%, 4 wt.%, and 6 wt.%) in powder form have been taken as the reinforcement materials. The present research work has been undertaken to explore marble dust as a reinforcing material as a low-cost option for improving mechanical properties.