Nowadays, low-cost particulate reinforced metal matrix composites with
improve mechanical properties are highly sought in various industrial and
critical engineering applications including automotive and aerospace
sectors. Meanwhile, increasing consumption rate of African giant land snail
(Archachatina marginata) had been posing disposal challenges of its shells.
Therefore, this paper tends to investigates the influence of waste snail
shells particulates on the physical and mechanical properties of recycled
aluminum- silicon alloy matrix. Different weight proportions i.e. (0 - 7.5)
wt% of calcined snail shell particles at an interval of 1.5 wt% were
successfully incorporated into Al-Si alloy matrix melted at 750 ?C using
stir-casting route. The microstructure, physical and mechanical properties
of the resulting composites were examined and presented. Microstructural
examination shows fairly uniform dispersion of snail shell particles in the
aluminium alloy matrix intermingled with aluminium-silicon dendrites.
Mechanical properties such as hardness, impact, compressive and tensile
strengths increased with increasing addition of calcined snail shell
particulate up to 6 wt% while density and elongation decreases. The total
equivalent density reduction of 5.4% in composites compared to unreinforced
alloy was obtained at 7.5 wt% snail shell addition. The maximum hardness,
impact, compressive and tensile strengths obtained are 118?4 HV, 88 J,
552?20 MPa and 211 ? 4.8 MPa equivalent to 21, 25, 19 and 36 percent
increase respectively relative to un-reinforced aluminium-silicon alloy.
Hence, mechanical and physical properties of Al-Si alloy can be enhanced
using calcined snail shell particulates which can widen its application in
automotive industries.
Experimental investigation on physical and mechanical properties of aluminium alloy 7050-T7451 after burning
