Author(s)

Surendra Kumar Dwiwedi¹, Ashok Kumar Srivastava^2*, Koh-ichi Sugimoto³, Manoj Chopkar⁴

¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, SOE, OP Jindal University, Raigarh, India.
²Department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering, SOE, OP Jindal University, Raigarh, India.
³Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan.
⁴Department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Raipur, India.

Chicken eggshell (ES) is an aviculture byproduct that has been used as the reinforcement in the present study which is recorded worldwide as one of the vilest environmental problems. The present work deals with development of ES-reinforced Al6061 matrix composites by stir-casting process with 0 to 10 wt% of reinforcement at an interval of 2 wt%. The microstructures of the fabricated composites were examined by optical and scanning electron microscopes with energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM/EDS). Optical micrographs divulge the uniform distribution of reinforcing particles in the matrix while X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns ensure the dispersion of ES particles reinforcement in Al6061 matrix. The properties measured include density, tensile strength and hardness values. The tensile strength and hardness of composites increase with the addition of ES particles and the maximum values were achieved at 4 wt%. Further increase of ES particles in the matrix leads to decrease in hardness and strength owing to increase in porosity.

MMCs, Al6061, Eggshell, Stir Casting

Dwiwedi, S. , Srivastava, A. , Sugimoto, K. and Chopkar, M. (2018) Microstructural and Mechanical Characterization of Chicken Eggshell-Reinforced Al6061 Matrix Composites. Open Journal of Metal, 8, 1-13. doi: 10.4236/ojmetal.2018.81001.