Evaluation of Corrosion Properties of Cenosphere Aluminium Composites

Industrial processes generate certain solid by-products, the disposal of which is of serious environmental concern. The solid by-products are mainly fly ash from the power generation industry, metallurgical ore residues and slag, slurry from the mining industry, etc. Among these, fly-ash utilization continues to be an important area of national concern due to India’s dependence on thermal power generation for its energy supply. Particle reinforced Al matrix composites are emerging out as potential materials to replace conventional alloys/metals. These metal matrix composites (MMCs) find extensive applications in many engineering activities because of their lightweight, high stiffness and high specific strength. This paper discusses the manufacture of cenosphere-aluminium composites. Based on varied ratios of the reinforcement phase, fly-ash cenospheres – 6061 aluminium composite with better features in terms of strength, corrosion resistance and hardness and has been developed. The current work also brings out the structure – property correlation of cenosphere-aluminium metal matrix composite. It is found from the microstructure studies that there is a homogeneous distribution of the cenospheres in the matrix of Al 6061. The corrosion studies show that there is an increase in the corrosion pitting of the cenosphere-aluminium composite.