ABSTRACT
The choice of suitable inoculants in the grain refinement process and subsequent enhancement of the characteristics of the composites developed is an important materials research topic, having wide scope. In this regard, the present work is aimed at finding the appropriate composition and size of fly ash as inoculants for grain refinement of the aluminum AA 5083 composites. Fly ash particles, which are by products of the combustion process in thermal power plants, contributing to the large-scale pollution and landfills can be effectively utilized as inoculants and interatomic lubricants in the composite matrix-reinforcement subspaces synthesized in the inert atmosphere using ultrasonic assisted stir casting setup. Thus, the work involves the study of the influence of percentage and size of the fly ash dispersions on the tensile and impact strength characteristics of the aluminum AA 5083/7.5SiC composites. The C type of fly ash with the particle size in the series of 40-75 µm, 76-100 µm, and 101-125 µm and weight % in the series of 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, and 2.5 are selected for the work. The influence of fly ash as distinct material inoculants for the grain refinement has worked out well with the increase in the ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and impact strength of the composites, with the fly ash as material inoculants up to 2 wt. % beyond which the tensile and impact characteristics decrease due to the micro coring and segregation. This is evident from the microstructural observations for the composite specimens. Moreover, the role of fly ash as material inoculants is distinctly identified with the X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) for the phase and grain growth epitaxy and the Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) for analyzing the characteristic X-Rays of the fly ash particles as inoculant agents in the energy spectrum.
