Utilization of waste spent alumina catalyst and agro-waste rice husk ash as reinforcement materials with scrap aluminium alloy wheel matrix

Abstract

In this study, an attempt was made to utilize waste products from industries to develop composite materials. In the present study, car scrap aluminium alloy wheels (SAAWs) was used as matrix material. Waste rice husk ash (RHA) was collected from a rice mill to utilize as a primary reinforcement material. Spent alumina catalyst (SAC) waste was used as a secondary reinforcement material. SAC was collected from the oil refinery industry. These wastes produced lots of soil and air pollution. However, by utilizing these wastes, some environment pollutions can be reduced. Car scrap aluminium alloy wheels (SAAWs) based composite material was developed using RHA as primary reinforcement material and SAC as a secondary reinforcement material by stir casting technique followed by squeeze pressure on the universal testing machine (UTM) in mushy zone. Microstructure behaviour shows a uniform distribution of RHA and SAC in a recycled aluminium alloy matrix. Mechanical properties such as hardness, ductility, compressive strength and tensile strength were improved using RHA and SAC as reinforcement material simultaneously in SAAWs matrix material. Thermal expansion behaviour, soil degradation test and corrosion loss were also observed to see the effect of agro-waste RHA and SAC in recycled aluminium alloy.