Investigating the Effect of Fly Ash Addition on the Metallurgical and Mechanical Behavior of Al-Si-Mg-Cu Alloy for Engine Cylinder Head Application.

The authors researched the physical, metallurgical, and mechanical characteristics of A354 alloy (Al-Si-Mg-Cu) reinforced with 5, 10, and 15 wt% of fly ash metal matrix composites. A baseline alloy and three composites were fabricated by a liquid metallurgy route and poured into a permanent mold to obtain cast rods of dimension Φ32 mm × 156 mm. The metallurgical characterization of the developed alloy and metal matrix composites was conducted using energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and X-ray diffraction. All the developed composites showed a pore-free nature, but only A354 alloy reinforced with 5 wt% of fly ash (AF 5 ) possessed a homogeneous distribution and perfect bonding of the fly ash with the A354 matrix. Therefore, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis was performed on the sample AF 5 . All developed alloys and metal matrix composites were subjected to hardness and mechanical property tests. It was observed that the AF 5 sample had 170 ± 5.6 HV and tensile strength of 216 ± 2.3 MPa, 18.8% and 24.8% higher than the A354 matrix, but the ductility (6.5 ± 0.43%) was reduced by 23% from the baseline alloy. Finally, the fractography analysis was conducted on all the samples using FESEM to analyze the fracture mode. The fabricated 5 wt% fly ash-based metal matrix composite showed better mechanical performance than other samples. Hence, sample AF 5 is suggested for manufacturing components in automotive and structural parts.