Tensile Fracture and Compression failure Behavior of Cenosphere Reinforced AA6061 Metal Matrix Composite

A small percentage of particles, present in the pulverized lignite coal fly-ash, contain thin-walled hollow spheres or cenosphere. Their amount depends on the carbon and iron contents existing in the fly-ash. The apparent density of these cenosphere is less than that of water and as such, they float on the ash slurry when it is impounded in the ash ponds. The Cenosphere are being used in different industrial applications, mainly due to their low density, high strength, and good thermal properties. Cenosphere derived from the lignite coal fly ash was used in this work as reinforcement for Aluminum Metal Matrix Composite (Al-MMC) to enhance its mechanical properties. Hence, the MMC uses fly ash derivative (Cenosphere) as reinforcement likely to overcome the cost barrier for wide spread uses in automotive and other industrial applications. Hence the experimental results shows that the %weight addition of cenosphere in the MMC significantly improves its tensile strength as well as Compressive strength of the matrix. It is mandatory to evaluate the failure load of the Metal matrix for future work, so that the Tensile and Compression tested specimens of (0%, 1%, 2%, 3% and 5%) weight of cenosphere are subjected to Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and XRD analysis to find the crack formation and growth. Thus the paper discuss about failure analysis of Cenosphere based Al-Alloy Metal Matrix Composite in lucid manner. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.