Physical, mechanical and thermal behavior of recycled agro waste GSA reinforced green composites

In the traditional development of aluminum based composite materials ceramic particles such as SiC, Al2O3 and B4C etc. are customarily used as a reinforcement material for the aluminum matrix. Further, industries producing these ceramic particles emit huge amount of greenhouse gases which in turn cause a great amount of environment pollution. Moreover, the production of these ceramic particles is costly. Agro waste groundnut shell ash (GSA) is an agricultural waste product that produces soil and air pollution. In addition, its disposal is costly. In this study, an attempt was made to utilize agro waste GSA as a partial replacement for ceramic particles in the development of AA2024 aluminum based composite. Microstructure results showed a uniform distribution of GSA particles in the aluminum base metal matrix alloy. Maximum tensile strength and hardness were found to be 198 MPa and 64 BHN for 3.75 wt.-% reinforcement of GSA particles in the AA2024 aluminum base matrix material. Porosity and thermal expansion were found to be 12.96 % and 125 mm(3), respectively for the AA2024/3.75 wt.-% GSA composite. Density, corrosion loss and the cost of the GSA reinforced composite continuously decreased by increasing the percentage of reinforcement. Specific strength and corrosion loss of the AA2024/3.75 wt.-% GSA green metal matrix composite were also found satisfactory.