Abstract
The present work is aimed to explore the microstructural and mechanical characteristics of coal-fly ash reinforced iron metal-matrix composites (IMMCs), synthesized through powder metallurgy technique. Coal-fly ash wt%, compacting load and sintering temperature were considered as the input variables, whereas sintered density and microhardness of the composites were taken as the output responses. Flowability and compressibility of the starting materials were demonstrated using Hausner ratio and Carr’s index. Decorous morphological, crystallographic and elemental characteristics of the starting materials and IMMCs were deliberated using Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy investigations respectively. A significant improvement in the microhardness of IMMCs by 50% and drop in density by 35% were found at 15 wt% as compared to 0 wt% reinforcement. The substantial increase in the microhardness eventually resulted in an increase in their specific microhardness by a factor of two. Significant improvements in the microhardness of IMMCs at 15 wt % of reinforcement, compacted at 10 ton and sintered at 1150°C were found to be prompted by the strengthening mechanisms like load transfer, Hall–Petch effect and Taylor strengthening. The analytically calculated microhardness in the light of strengthening mechanisms was found smaller than the corresponding experimental values as a function of wt % of reinforcement. Further, statistical analysis of the obtained results was carried out using response surface methodology.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Singh J and Chauhan A 2019 A review of microstructure, mechanical properties and wear behavior of hybrid aluminium matrix composites fabricated via stir casting route. Sadhana 44:1–18
Ahmaruzzaman M 2010 A review on the utilization of fly ash. Prog. Energy.and Combust. Sci. 36:327–363
Kim S H, and Hahn H T 2006 Size effect in particulate metal matrix composites: An analytical approach. Adv. Compos. Mater. 15:175–191
Fulekar M H and Dave J M 1986 Disposal of fly ash — an environmental problem. Int. J. Environ. Stud. 26:191–215
Manimaran R, Jayakumar I, Giyahudeen R M and Narayanan L 2018 Mechanical properties of fly ash composites — A review. Energy Sources Part A. 40:887–893
Mishra D P and Das S K 2010 A study of physico-chemical and mineralogical properties of Talcher coal fly ash for stowing in underground coal mines. Mater. Charact. 61:1252–1259
Guo R Q and Rohatgi P K 1997 Preparation of aluminium–fly ash particulate composite by powder metallurgy technique. J. Mater. Sci. 32:3971–3974
Slipenyuk A, Kuprin V, Milman Y, Spowart J E and Miracle D B 2004 The effect of matrix to reinforcement particle size ratio (PSR) on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a P/M processed AlCuMn/SiCp MMC. Mater. Sci. Eng. A. 381:165–170
Zhang B, Yang F, Qin Q, Lu T, Sun H and Lin S 2019 Characterisation of powder metallurgy H13 steels prepared from water atomised powders. Powder Metall. 2019:1–10
Jha P, Gupta P, Kumar D and Parkash O 2014 Synthesis and characterization of Fe-ZrO2 metal matrix composites. J. Compos. Mater. 48:2107–2115
Meti V K V, Shirur S, Nampoothiri J, Ravi K R and Siddhalingeshwar I G 2018 Synthesis, Characterization and Mechanical Properties of AA7075 Based MMCs Reinforced with TiB2 Particles Processed Through Ultrasound Assisted In-Situ Casting Technique. Trans. Indian Inst. Met. 71:841–848
Sahoo S, Jha B B, Sahoo T K and Mandal A 2017 Influence of reinforcement and processing on steel-based composites: Microstructure and mechanical response. Mater. Manuf. Process. 33:564–571
Abdollahi H, Mahdavinejad R and Leavoli R P 2015 Investigation and optimization of properties of sintered iron / recycled grey cast iron powder metallurgy parts. J. Eng. Manuf. 229:1010–1020
Zhang X, Ma F, Ma K and Li X 2012 Effects of Graphite Content and Temperature on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Iron-Based Powder Metallurgy Parts. J. Mater. Sci. Res. 1:48–56
Sharma Shyam, Hundekar P R, Gupta P, Kumar D, Jain R, Singh N and Rawat V 2017 Structural and mechanical characterization of re-pressed and annealed iron-alumina metal matrix nanocomposites. J. Compos. Mater. 52:1541–1556
Gupta P, Kumar D, Parkash O and Jha A K 2014 Sintering and Hardness Behavior of Fe-Al2O3 Metal Matrix Nanocomposites Prepared by Powder Metallurgy. J. Compos. 2014:1–10
Sahoo S, Jha B B, Mahata T and Sharma J 2019 Mechanical and Wear Behaviour of Hot-Pressed 304 stainless Steel Matrix Composites Containing TiB2 Particles. Trans. Indian Inst. Met. 72:1153–1165
Guo R Q, Rohatgi P K and Nath D 1996 Compacting characteristics of aluminium-fly ash powder mixtures. J. Mater. Sci. 31:5513–5519
Rajan S T K, Balaji A N, Narayanasamy P and Vettivel S C 2018 Microstructural, electrical, thermal and tribological studies of copper-fly ash composites through powder metallurgy. Bull POLISH Acad. Sci. 66:935–940
Saker A, Cares-Pacheco M G, Marchal P and Falk V 2019 Powders flowability assessment in granular compaction: What about the consistency of Hausner ratio? Powder Technol. 354:52–63
Verma P, Saha R and Chaira D 2018 Waste steel scrap to nanostructured powder and superior compact through powder metallurgy: Powder generation, processing and characterization. Powder Technol. 326:159–167
Gao X, Zhang X, Qian M and Geng L 2019 Effect of reinforcement shape on fracture behaviour of SiC/Al composites with network architecture. Compos. Struct. 215:411–420
Singh J, Verma V, Kumar R, and Kumar R 2019 Influence of Mg2+-substitution on the optical band gap energy of Cr2−xMgxO3 nanoparticles. Results Phys. 13:1–8
Prasad D S, Shoba C and Ramanaiah N 2014 Investigations on mechanical properties of aluminum hybrid composites. J. Mater. Res. Technol. 3:79–85
Matsunaga T, Kim J K, Hardcastle S and Rohatgi P K 2002 Crystallinity and selected properties of fly ash particles. Mater. Sci. Eng. 325:333–343
Raj R and Thakur D G 2019 Effect of particle size and volume fraction on the strengthening mechanisms of boron carbide reinforced aluminum metal matrix composites. J. Mech. Eng. Sci. 233:1345–1356
Kim C S, Sohn I, Nezafati M, Ferguson J B, Schultz B F, Bajestani-Gohari Z, Rohatgi P K and Cho K 2013 Prediction models for the yield strength of particle-reinforced unimodal pure magnesium (Mg) metal matrix nanocomposites (MMNCs). J. Mater. Sci. 48:4191–4204
Chidambaram A, Balasivanandha Prabu S and Padmanabhan KA 2019 Microstructure and mechanical properties of AA6061–5wt. %TiB2 in-situ metal matrix composite subjected to equal channel angular pressing. Mater. Sci. Eng. 759:762–769
Zhao L, Lu H and Gao Z 2015 Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Al/Graphene Composite Produced by High-Pressure Torsion. Adv. Eng. Mater. 17:976–981
Balakrishna Bhat T and Arunachalam VS 1980 Strengthening mechanisms in alloys. Indian Acad.Sci. 3:275–296
Sanaty-Zadeh A 2012 Comparison between current models for the strength of particulate-reinforced metal matrix nanocomposites with emphasis on consideration of Hall–Petch effect. Mater. Sci. Eng. A. 531:112–118
Sahoo S K, Sahoo B N and Panigrahi S K 2020 Effect of in-situ sub-micron sized TiB2 reinforcement on microstructure and mechanical properties in ZE41 magnesium matrix composites. Mater. Sci. Eng. 773:1–39
Azadi M, Rezanezhad S, Zolfaghari M and Azadi M 2020 Investigation of tribological and compressive behaviors of Al/SiO2 nanocomposites after T6 heat treatment. Sadhana 45:1–13
Xi L, Gu D, Guo S and Wang R 2020 Grain refinement in laser manufactured Al-based composites with TiB2 ceramic. J. Mater. Res. Technol. 9:2611–2622
Ramakrishnan N 1996 An analytical study on strengthening of particulate reinforced metal matrix composites. Acta Mater. 44:69–77
Chelliah N M, Singh H and Surappa M K 2017 Microstructural evolution and strengthening behavior in in-situ magnesium matrix composites fabricated by solidification processing. Mater. Chem. Phys. 194:65–76
Rohatgi P K, Gupta N and Alaraj S 2006 Thermal expansion of aluminum-fly ash cenosphere composites synthesized by pressure infiltration echnique. J. Compos. Mater. 40:1163–1174
Zhou X L, Dong Y H, Hua X Z and Ye Z G 2010 Effect of Fe on the sintering and thermal properties of Mo-Cu composites. Mater. Des. 31:1603–1606
Yazdi A Z, Bagheri R, Zebarjad S M and Hesabi Z R 2010 Incorporating aspect ratio in a new modeling approach for strengthening of MMCs and its extension from micro to nano scale. Adv. Compos. Mater. 19:299–316
Balasubramanian M 2013 Dispersed Phase Composite materials and processing. BoCa Raton, London, New York: CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group. 77
David Raja Selvam J, Robinson Smart D S and Dinaharan I 2013 Microstructure and some mechanical properties of fly ash particulate reinforced AA6061 aluminum alloy composites prepared by compocasting. Mater. Des. 49:28–34
Saba F, Zhang F, Liu S and Liu T 2019 Reinforcement size dependence of mechanical properties and strengthening mechanisms in diamond reinforced titanium metal matrix composites. Compos. Part B .167:7–19
Bahador A, Umeda J, Hamzah E, Yusof F, Li X and Kondoh K 2020 Synergistic strengthening mechanisms of copper matrix composites with TiO2 nanoparticles. Mater. Sci. Eng. A. 772:1387–1397
Yang H, Jiang L, Balog M, Krizik P and Schoenung J M 2017 Reinforcement Size Dependence of Load Bearing Capacity in Ultrafine-Grained Metal Matrix Composites. Metall. Mater. Trans. A. 48:4385–4892
Ferguson J B, Schultz B F, Venugopalan D, Lopez H F, Rohatgi P K, Cho K and Kim S 2014 On the superposition of strengthening mechanisms in dispersion strengthened alloys and metal-matrix nanocomposites: Considerations of stress and energy. Met. Mater. Int. 20:375–388
Balamurugan P and Uthayakumar M 2015 Influence of process parameters on Cu-fly ash composite by powder metallurgy technique. Mater. Manuf. Process. 30:313–319
Siddhi Jailani H, Rajadurai A, Mohan B, Senthil Kumar A and Sornakumar T 2011 Development and properties of aluminium silicon alloy fly ash composites. Powder Metall. 54:474–479
Prajapati P K and Chaira D 2019 Fabrication and Characterization of Cu–B 4 C Metal Matrix Composite by Powder Metallurgy: Effect of B4C on Microstructure, Mechanical Properties and Electrical Conductivity. Trans. Indian Inst. Met. 72:673–684
Tiwari S, Rajput P and Srivastava S 2012 Densification Behaviour in the Fabrication of Al-Fe Metal Matrix Composite Using Powder Metallurgy Route. ISRN Metall. :1–8
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Singh, A., Singh, J., Sinha, M.K. et al. Investigations on microstructural and microhardness developments in sintered iron–coal fly ash composites. Sādhanā 45, 167 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-020-01408-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-020-01408-z