Investigation of mechanical properties of waste aluminum matrix and nanoparticle reinforced composite materials

A composite material can be defined as a material produced by combining the best properties of more than one material, provided that at least one of them is a matrix and the other is a reinforcement element, which has been improved in terms of physical and mechanical properties in order to meet the material needs of the industry and technology with the desired properties. It was desired to produce materials with higher mechanical properties by adding reinforcement material with different methods into the reference matrix material, which generally has lower mechanical properties. There are materials belonging to different classes as matrix materials, and metal matrix composites have an important place in terms of meeting engineering needs. Metals chosen as matrix material in metal matrix composites are soft, light, low melting point and low strength metals. In this field, aluminum is generally preferred more because it is a light and formable material. In order to increase the mechanical properties of aluminum, when the literature is examined in general, composite materials with better properties can be obtained by reinforcing ceramic nanoparticles. In this study, matrix material was produced for composite material production by recycling waste beverage cans as matrix material. Metal matrix nanocomposite production was carried out by reinforcing the reference matrix material obtained from waste aluminum with 38 nm size TiO2 at 0.5% and 1% by weight, and 78 nm size Al2O3 nanoparticles at 0.5%, 1% and 1.5% by weight, by the mixed casting method. Tensile strength, 3-point bending strength, abrasion rate, surface roughness results, Vickers hardness value, density, porosity ratio and microstructure experiments were performed on the produced metal matrix nano composite material and their changes were examined. As a result of the experiments, the best values as a result of the Al2O3 particle reinforcement by weight, the tensile strength of 1.5%, 143.5 N/mm2, the 3-point bending strength 336.2N/mm2, the hardness value of 245.51 Hv, the wear rate 0.0000023 mm3/ Nm and the mass loss % It was determined that it was 1.60, the density was 2.699 gr/cm3, and the surface roughness was 0.3614 µm in at least 0.5% Al2O3 added composite. As a result of the experiments made by adding TiO2 to the matrix material by weight, the best values are 1% tensile strength 143.98 N/mm2, 3-point bending strength 323.04N/mm2, hardness value 263.95 Hv, wear rate 0.0000028 mm3/Nm and mass loss. It has been determined that it is 1.933%, the density is 2.711 gr/cm3 and the surface roughness is at least 0.3527 µm. When examining the microstructure of the material with Al2O3 and TiO2 as reinforcement particles, it was observed that the particles were homogeneously dispersed in the matrix material and the porosity decreased according to the increasing amount of reinforcement. As a result, it has been determined that the addition of nano-sized Al2O3 and TiO2 to the waste aluminum matrix material contributes to the mechanical properties.