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Basalt fibre reinforced aluminium matrix composites – A review
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr
Basalt fibre reinforced aluminium matrix composites – A review C. Brainard Abraham ⇑, V. Boobesh Nathan, S. Rajesh Jaipaul, D. Nijesh, M. Manoj, S. Navaneeth Department of Mechanical Engineering, CSI College of Engineering, The Nilgiris, India
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 5 April 2019 Received in revised form 5 June 2019 Accepted 6 June 2019 Available online xxxx Keywords: Basalt fiber Aluminium Copper coating Casting technique Mechanical properties
a b s t r a c t Basalt Fibers are manufactured from crushed basalt igneous rock by the rapid cooling of lava. Due to their low cost and good mechanical properties basalt fibres were used in many applications such as automotive, boat building, civil engineering, wind turbine blades, and sporting goods. This paper reviews the mechanical properties, metallurgical properties and different casting techniques of basalt fibres reinforcement with aluminium alloys of different series. The change in properties such as hardness, tensile strength, and compressive strength, Young’s modulus and ductility of aluminium matrix composites (AMC’s) with basalt fibres reinforcements was discussed. Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Recent Trends in Nanomaterials for Energy, Environmental and Engineering Applications.
1. Introduction Today the use of composite materials is growing significantly in the manufacturing sector. There is a huge demand for the development of new materials in the market. To meet the specifications required to manufacture a good product, basalt fibre is introduced to obtain better properties over conventional materials. It is known as a green industrial material. The origin of Basalt is from volcanic magma and flood volcanoes, they are hot fluid or semi-fluid material found under the earth’s crust; those fluids are solidified in the open air. Basalt is a common term used for grey, dark in colour volcanic rocks which are taken from molten lava after solidification [1]. The study on natural fibre has become so important in recent years, due to the growing awareness needed to protect ecological, environmental resources and shrinking forest resources. Although the advantages of natural fibres over traditional fibres (low cost, reduced tool wear, acceptable specific strength properties, low density, and biodegradability). New reinforcement materials are currently studied; it could be represented by basalt fibre. Basalt fibres have good physical and chemical properties such as good mechanical and chemical resistance, excellent thermal, electric, acoustic insulation properties and good adhesion to metals, epoxies and glues. They are environmentally friendly as recycling of these fibres is much more efficient than other fibres. Compared ⇑ Corresponding author.
with other types of fibres, basalt fibre has stronger affinity with other fibre materials, such as resins and inorganic materials. It means that the composite has better performance. Basalt fibre can be made into different composite materials with special enhancement characteristics. It has a wide application in automotive, boat building, civil engineering, wind turbine blades, and sporting goods which can be used in tubes, pipes fittings, bars, internal heat and sound insulation of floors, walls, frame walls, tanks, boiler shells, fire protection structures, chimneys etc due to its strong applications in construction materials and applications in automotive industry in the production of CNG cylinders, mufflers, brake pads headliners and other parts for interior [2,3]. The properties of Metal matrix composites (MMCs) are strongly dependent on the interface between the metal matrix and basalt fibre surfaces which includes the overall performance of composites. The interfacial bonding strength of the composites is achieved by several methods such as wettability of reinforcement provided by liquid metal, coating of the reinforcement, modification of the matrix composition, and control of process parameters [4]. Basalt fibre reinforced composites have high specific strength and specific modulus parameters (i.e., strength to weight ratios). They are widely used in low weight components. Metals reinforced by basalt fibres have good machinability and workability over conventional processing techniques. It has better stiffness and elastic-plastic tensile properties [5]. Basalt fibres are inexpensive to manufacture which has high corrosion and wear resistance. It
E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Brainard Abraham). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.135 2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Recent Trends in Nanomaterials for Energy, Environmental and Engineering Applications.
Please cite this article as: C. Brainard Abraham, V. Boobesh Nathan, S. Rajesh Jaipaul et al., Basalt fibre reinforced aluminium matrix composites – A review, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.135
2
C. Brainard Abraham et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
posses relatively good mechanical properties such as Young’s modulus of 78–110 GPa and tensile strength of 2.8–4.8 GPa [6]. There are various techniques used in the development of aluminium-basalt composites. Before casting basalt fibre composites electro-less coating process is done to deposit the copper coatings onto the basalt fibre surface by cleaning, rinsing, washing and drying the surface of basalt which relies on a sequence of sensitizing, activation and metallization. After coating, basalt fibres are preheated and prepared before introducing into aluminium alloy melt. Different casting techniques such as stir casting, squeeze casting, hand lay-up method, hps method were used to fabricate the composites. The composites of AA7075/basalt, AA356/basalt, AA LM25/basalt, AA413/basalt, AA2024 T3/basalt shows better properties over other composites, they have gained good inter-molecular bonding by provided wettability property [7–10].
3. Experimental procedure 3.1. Coating process The Electroless process is used to deposit copper coatings on basalt fibre as per ASTM B904 00(2014) standards. The continuous basalt fibre of 6 lm diameter was chopped into short fibres of 1 to 2 mm length. The fibres are treated in a muffle furnace for 10 min at a temperature of 500 °C. The basalt fibre surfaces are prepared by cleaning the surface in distilled water, rinsing, washing and drying the surface at 90 °C followed by the coating stages such as sensitizing, activation and metallization. The basalt fibre surfaces are treated with glacial acetic and stannous chloride (SnCl2) which activates the surface and sensitized for the various time duration (5, 10 & 15 min.) by continuous stirring. Fibres are filtered and cleaned with distilled water to have catalytic surfaces; they were treated under ultrasonic agitation with an aqueous solution of palladium chloride (PdCl2) and HCl which provides metallization with copper by exposing the fibres in the open oven for 10 min at 500 °C to remove pyrolytic coatings on the fibre. The activated fibres are immersed into a solution of CuSO4-5H2O held under agitation which produces continuous and crystalline copper coatings with homogeneous thickness.
2. Basalt fiber Basalt is the most common igneous rock formed by the rapid cooling of lava present in the earth’s crust. These rocks are crushed to extract high-quality basalt fibres similar to glass fibre. The fibres are produced in a continuous form igneous basalt rock melt drawing at about 2700° F (1500 °C). The basalt fibre is made from extremely fine fibres of basalt. Basalt fibre is a newcomer to fibre reinforced polymers (FRPs). Structural composites are made from basalt fibres which make good material for concrete, bridge, shoreline structures, and fireproof textile in the aerospace and automotive industries (Fig. 1). Basalt fibre has a density of 2.5–3.05 g/cm3 [3]. They have a temperature range from 452° F to 1200° F ( 269 °C to +650 °C), higher radiation resistance, higher oxidation resistance, higher shear strength and higher compression strength [11]. The stages in Basalt fibre production are melting, homogenization of basalt and extraction of fibres. The basalt fibre is heated only once and cold technologies were used to produce continuous fibres with low energy costs (Tables 1 and 2).
3.2. Preparation of basalt fibre After copper coating the fibres are preheated to 500C to improve the wettability between basalt fibre and molten metal, the preheated fibres are maintained at the same temperature till it was introduced into the molten Al melt. The required quantities of these fibres were pickled in 10% NaOH solution at room temperature for 10 minutes; it was done to remove surface impurities. Those fibres were immersed in a mixture of 1 part nitric acid and 1 part water for one minute and washed by methanol to remove the smut formed. They were dried in air and loaded into different alumina crucibles. 3.3. Casting techniques Some casting techniques used to fabricate different series of aluminium/basalt composites which were studied from previous researcher’s findings are explained. 3.3.1. Stir casting technique Stir casting technique is used to manufacture Aluminium LM25/basalt fibre composite. It is a low-cost process to fabricate discontinuous metal matrix composites. The Induction furnace in the stir casting setup was used to melt the matrix material. The aluminium alloy LM25 of required proportion was taken in a graphite crucible and kept it in the Induction furnace for melting. The basalt fibres were preheated and added to the molten aluminium melt when it reaches a temperature of 600 °C. After the
Fig. 1. Basalt Fibre.
Table 1 Chemical Composition. Chemical Composition of Basalt rocks
SiO2
Al2O3
Fe2O3
MgO
CaO
Na2O
K2O
TiO2
P2O5
MnO
Cr2O3
%
52.8
17.5
10.3
4.63
8.59
3.34
1.46
1.38
0.28
0.16
0.06
Table 2 Mechanical Properties. Fibre Type
Specific Gravity
Tensile Strength (MPa)
Elastic Modulus, (GPa)
Strain at Break, (mm/mm)
Basalt
2.7
400–695 (2800–4800)
12,500–13,000 (86–90)
0.0315
Please cite this article as: C. Brainard Abraham, V. Boobesh Nathan, S. Rajesh Jaipaul et al., Basalt fibre reinforced aluminium matrix composites – A review, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.135
C. Brainard Abraham et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
reinforcement is added the furnace temperature was raised to 800 °C and stirred with a mechanical stirrer consisting of stirring rod and the impeller blade of various geometry and various numbers of blades at 300 RPM for 2 to 3 minutes as it leads to axial flow pattern in the crucible in which forms vortex which leads the mixing of the reinforcement material in the matrix alloy. The cast iron dies were preheated to 100 °C, the hot molten composite is poured into the die. After the casted parts are solidified they were removed from the die and kept for cooling. The casted parts were inspected and prepared for further testing as per ASTM standards. 3.3.2. Squeeze casting technique The composites of aluminium 7075/basalt fibre were fabricated using a squeeze casting technique. In this method the basalt fibres reinforcements were preheated up to 500 °C, the molten aluminium is injected into the interstices of the reinforcement usually called as a preform. The furnace temperature was increased and the composites were stirred at 300 RPM for 2 to 3 minutes. The apparatus consists of a simple die and punch setup with ejector rod to remove the solidified composite. A 150-ton hydraulic press was installed to compress the liquid metal in order to obtain net shapes with sound and dense quality. The die is preheated by a band heater, with the perform inside it to 300–400 °C. The molten composite is then poured into the die and compressed by the hydraulic press at a pressure of 20 to 30 MPa with a constant ram speed of 10 mm/sec. The pressure is maintained for 5– 10 min till the metal is cooled and solidified. The ram is withdrawn and the casted composites were extracted.
3
and carbonate dissociation occurs. Further heating leads to component sintering with the melting of the glassy phase, most low melting of minerals and with the polymorphic transformations. The parameters are selected on the basis of heat flow through the basalt fibre by analyzing with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Then the composite mixture was pressed under a uniaxial pressure of 50 MPa and heated at a temperature of 650 °C for 60 min. Argon gas is used to protect the process from the atmosphere. After the composites were pressed the casted samples were taken for further testing. 3.3.5. Hand lay-up method In this method, Fibre Metal Laminates (FML’s) were fabricated. Aluminium 2024-T3/Basalt Fibers/Epoxy resins were used as the composites. The samples of 15 2.5 0.19 cm3 dimensions with 2/1 configuration were fabricated in hand lay-up method. Aluminium sheets were laminated by basalt/epoxy laminates. The basalt fibres were placed on the aluminium sheet and epoxy resin is poured on the surface, similarly, 4 interlayer’s of basalt reinforcements were placed. After laminating the composites, the samples were cured by placing them on a mould at 0.15 MPa and ambient temperature. The pressure is applied to remove excess resin and resulted in the reduction of bubbles formed inside the samples. 4. Mechanical properties 4.1. Hardness
3.3.3. Hand lay-out technique In this method, Aluminium alloy A413/ basalt composites were fabricated. Hand lay-out technique was used to reduce the damage and loss in strength of the basalt fibres. It is a two-step process used to produce composites. The aluminium alloy A413 is melted at a temperature of 620 °C. The basalt fibres were wound in a flat fixture and they were dipped into molten aluminium melt and cooled to room temperature in order to produce aluminium/basalt laminates. The aluminium/basalt laminates were hot pressed in a mould to produce composites. To obtain minimized porosity levels, the composites were weighed in distilled water and air by using electronic balance with 0.1 mg accuracy, then temperature, time and pressure of the hot press was optimized by Archimedes method and mixtures law. 3.3.4. Hot-press sintering (HPS) method In this method, Basalt Fibre/Aluminium composites were fabricated. Hot- Press Sintering method is used to fabricate short fibres. The Basalt short fibre reinforcement of 5 mm length and 10 lm diameter was chosen. The aluminium powder of 5 lm dia in its purest form is chosen as the raw material of the metal matrix. The ultrasonic shaking and velocity mixing process were used to mix the short basalt fibre/ aluminium composites and they are well combined. There are some optimized parameters followed in HPS method to fabricate basalt/aluminium composites, they are as follows: The composite mixture was kept in room temperature and heated to 550 °C at a rate of 10 °C/min. The composite mixture was heated from 550 °C to 650 °C at a rate of 20 °C/min. At the initial stage of heating (550 °C to 650 °C) the processes of hygroscopic moisture evaporation, organic impurities burning, chemically bound water removal,
Hardness is the measure of resistance to the indentation on the surface of the material and also it is the stress required to produce deformation on the surfaces. Brinell hardness testing is a method to evaluate the hardness of the composites. The hardness of the composites is given in the form of Brinell Hardness Number (BHN). From the previous researcher’s findings, it is said that the increase in short basalt fibre content in the composite increases the hardness of the material. It is observed that 2.5 wt% of basalt fibre addition leads to increase in BHN of the composites up to 9.2% and the highest percentage of basalt fibre reinforcement of 7.5 wt% gained maximum hardness of 19.84%. The maximum addition of basalt fibre more than 7.5 wt% leads to a decrease in BHN value due to casting defects and agglomeration. The increase in the hardness of the composites is due to the hardness property of basalt fibre which acts as a barrier to the movement of the dislocations inside the matrix. 4.2. Ultimate tensile strength UTS is the capacity of a material to withstand loads in which the material is elongated, it acts as an opposing force to compressive strength. It is the resistance of a material which has been pulled apart. The Cu coated basalt fibre composites with aluminium posse’s good properties. The UTS increases with increase in weight percentage of the Cu coated basalt fibre reinforcement with aluminium matrix compared to uncoated fibres. The Cu coated basalt reinforcements from 2.5 wt% to 10 wt% in the composite gained increased UTS from 15.5 to 28.7%. The 2.5 wt% of basalt fibre reinforcement gained an increased UTS up to 18.60% and for 10 wt% reinforcement, higher UTS value of 38.75% was found. This is due to good hardness property of the basalt fibre, reduced grain size of the alloy, the difference in thermal expansion, matrix strengthening and proper bonding between alloy and reinforcement which leads to decrease in wear rate and increased strength of the composites.
Please cite this article as: C. Brainard Abraham, V. Boobesh Nathan, S. Rajesh Jaipaul et al., Basalt fibre reinforced aluminium matrix composites – A review, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.135
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C. Brainard Abraham et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
4.3. Compressive strength The compressive strength of a material is to resist compressive loads which the material is being pushed together. The Compressive strength of basalt fibre reinforcement in the aluminium matrix alloy for 0 to 2.5 wt% gained an increased value of about 11.98% and up to 10 wt% reinforcement higher value of 41.66% was obtained. The increase in compressive strength is due to the presence of hard basalt fibre reinforcement which imparts high strength to the composite. The crushing strength and rigidity of the fibres make the composites to increase in strength.
The casting techniques such as stir casting technique, squeeze casting technique, hand layout technique, hot press sintering (HPS) method and hand layup method were found to be suitable to fabricate basalt fibre reinforced composites. The hardness, ultimate tensile strength, compressive strength and elastic modulus of basalt fibre reinforced composites increases with increase in basalt fibre reinforcement percentages and also gained good intermolecular bonding with the composites. The ductility of the basalt reinforced composites decreases with increase in reinforcement weight percentages in which it is due to the presence of voids in the composites.
4.4. Elastic modulus Elastic modulus or Young’s modulus is a tendency of a material to resist elastic deformation under different load conditions. The Elastic modulus of Cu coated basalt fibre from 2.5 to 10 wt% in aluminium matrix increases up to 13.26% compared to uncoated fibres. When compared with virgin aluminium alloy the composites with 2.5 wt% gained an increased Young’s modulus value of 3.59% and for 10 wt% highest value of 14.47% was observed. This is due to the alignment of basalt fibre with minimum segregation in the alloy parallel to the axis and homogeneous distribution of the fibres in the matrix. 4.5. Ductility The tendency of a ductile material is to gain toughness when the material undergoes plastic deformation. The ductility or % of elongation of basalt fibre reinforcement from 2.5 to 10 wt% in the aluminium matrix composites decreases up to 33.3% to 43.33% when compared to virgin alloy. This behaviour of the composites is due to the presence of voids which formed during reinforcement interface with the matrix alloy and plastic strains undergone by the reinforcement. This property is a major disadvantage in the basalt fibre/aluminium composites. 5. Conclusion The electroless copper coating process inflated the properties of basalt fibre.
References [1] Kunal Singha, A short review on basalt fibre, Int. J. Text. Sci. 1 (4) (2012) 19–28, https://doi.org/10.5923/j.textile.20120104.02. [2] Hafsa Jamshaid, Basalt fiber and its applications, J. Text. Eng. Fashion Technol. 1 (6) (2017). [3] Zongwen Li, Jianxun Ma, Hongmin Ma, Xu Xin, Properties and applications of basalt fiber and its composites, GBEM IOP Publishing IOP Conf. Series: Earth Environ. Sci. 186 (2018) (2018) 012052, https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/ 186/2/012052. [4] S. Ezhil Vannan, S. Paul Vizhian, Development and characterization of coppercoated basalt fibre reinforced aluminium alloy composites, Int. J. Eng. Res. Technol. (IJERT) (2013), ISSN: 2278-0181, Vol. 2 Issue 8, August – 2013. [5] S. Ezhil Vannan, S. Paul Vizhian, Microstructure and mechanical properties of as cast aluminium alloy 7075/basalt dispersed metal matrix composites, J. Miner. Mater. Char. Eng. 2 (2014) 182–193. [6] Onuh Adole, Nilam Barekar, Lorna Anguilano, Timothy Minton, Aleksander Novytskyi, Brian McKay, Fibre/matrix intermetallic phase formation in novel aluminium-basalt composites, Mater. Lett. 2019 (239) (2019) 128–131. [7] Rakesh Kumar, Babu Reddy. A Study on Mechanical properties of Basalt Fiber Reinforced Aluminium alloy (LM25) Composite. JETIR (ISSN-2349-5162), December 2017, Volume 4, Issue 12. [8] Seyyed M. M. Sabet, Farshad Akhlaghi, Reza Eslami-Farsani. Production and Optimization of Aluminum-Basalt Composites by Hand Lay-out Technique. Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering. 2012, Vol III. [9] Yang Zhiming, Liu Jinxu, Feng Xinya, Xu Li Shukui, Ren Jie Yuxin, Investigation on mechanical properties and failure mechanisms of basalt fiber reinforced aluminum matrix composites under different loading conditions, J. Compos. Mater. (2017), https://doi.org/10.1177/0021998317733807. [10] S. Hamed Aghamohammadi, Navid Hosseini Abbandanak, S. Reza EslamiFarsani, M. Hossein Siadati, Effects of various aluminum surface treatments on the basalt fiber metal laminates interlaminar adhesion, Int. J. Adhes. Adhes. (2018), S0143-7496(18)30083-6. [11] Performance of Basalt fiber in concrete, S. Aishwarya, V. Dass Mohan. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET). Volume: 06 Issue: 03, Mar 2019. e-ISSN: 2395-0056, p-ISSN: 2395-0072.
Please cite this article as: C. Brainard Abraham, V. Boobesh Nathan, S. Rajesh Jaipaul et al., Basalt fibre reinforced aluminium matrix composites – A review, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.135
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr
Basalt fibre reinforced aluminium matrix composites – A review C. Brainard Abraham ⇑, V. Boobesh Nathan, S. Rajesh Jaipaul, D. Nijesh, M. Manoj, S. Navaneeth Department of Mechanical Engineering, CSI College of Engineering, The Nilgiris, India
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 5 April 2019 Received in revised form 5 June 2019 Accepted 6 June 2019 Available online xxxx Keywords: Basalt fiber Aluminium Copper coating Casting technique Mechanical properties
a b s t r a c t Basalt Fibers are manufactured from crushed basalt igneous rock by the rapid cooling of lava. Due to their low cost and good mechanical properties basalt fibres were used in many applications such as automotive, boat building, civil engineering, wind turbine blades, and sporting goods. This paper reviews the mechanical properties, metallurgical properties and different casting techniques of basalt fibres reinforcement with aluminium alloys of different series. The change in properties such as hardness, tensile strength, and compressive strength, Young’s modulus and ductility of aluminium matrix composites (AMC’s) with basalt fibres reinforcements was discussed. Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Recent Trends in Nanomaterials for Energy, Environmental and Engineering Applications.
1. Introduction Today the use of composite materials is growing significantly in the manufacturing sector. There is a huge demand for the development of new materials in the market. To meet the specifications required to manufacture a good product, basalt fibre is introduced to obtain better properties over conventional materials. It is known as a green industrial material. The origin of Basalt is from volcanic magma and flood volcanoes, they are hot fluid or semi-fluid material found under the earth’s crust; those fluids are solidified in the open air. Basalt is a common term used for grey, dark in colour volcanic rocks which are taken from molten lava after solidification [1]. The study on natural fibre has become so important in recent years, due to the growing awareness needed to protect ecological, environmental resources and shrinking forest resources. Although the advantages of natural fibres over traditional fibres (low cost, reduced tool wear, acceptable specific strength properties, low density, and biodegradability). New reinforcement materials are currently studied; it could be represented by basalt fibre. Basalt fibres have good physical and chemical properties such as good mechanical and chemical resistance, excellent thermal, electric, acoustic insulation properties and good adhesion to metals, epoxies and glues. They are environmentally friendly as recycling of these fibres is much more efficient than other fibres. Compared ⇑ Corresponding author.
with other types of fibres, basalt fibre has stronger affinity with other fibre materials, such as resins and inorganic materials. It means that the composite has better performance. Basalt fibre can be made into different composite materials with special enhancement characteristics. It has a wide application in automotive, boat building, civil engineering, wind turbine blades, and sporting goods which can be used in tubes, pipes fittings, bars, internal heat and sound insulation of floors, walls, frame walls, tanks, boiler shells, fire protection structures, chimneys etc due to its strong applications in construction materials and applications in automotive industry in the production of CNG cylinders, mufflers, brake pads headliners and other parts for interior [2,3]. The properties of Metal matrix composites (MMCs) are strongly dependent on the interface between the metal matrix and basalt fibre surfaces which includes the overall performance of composites. The interfacial bonding strength of the composites is achieved by several methods such as wettability of reinforcement provided by liquid metal, coating of the reinforcement, modification of the matrix composition, and control of process parameters [4]. Basalt fibre reinforced composites have high specific strength and specific modulus parameters (i.e., strength to weight ratios). They are widely used in low weight components. Metals reinforced by basalt fibres have good machinability and workability over conventional processing techniques. It has better stiffness and elastic-plastic tensile properties [5]. Basalt fibres are inexpensive to manufacture which has high corrosion and wear resistance. It
E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Brainard Abraham). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.135 2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Recent Trends in Nanomaterials for Energy, Environmental and Engineering Applications.
Please cite this article as: C. Brainard Abraham, V. Boobesh Nathan, S. Rajesh Jaipaul et al., Basalt fibre reinforced aluminium matrix composites – A review, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.135
2
C. Brainard Abraham et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
posses relatively good mechanical properties such as Young’s modulus of 78–110 GPa and tensile strength of 2.8–4.8 GPa [6]. There are various techniques used in the development of aluminium-basalt composites. Before casting basalt fibre composites electro-less coating process is done to deposit the copper coatings onto the basalt fibre surface by cleaning, rinsing, washing and drying the surface of basalt which relies on a sequence of sensitizing, activation and metallization. After coating, basalt fibres are preheated and prepared before introducing into aluminium alloy melt. Different casting techniques such as stir casting, squeeze casting, hand lay-up method, hps method were used to fabricate the composites. The composites of AA7075/basalt, AA356/basalt, AA LM25/basalt, AA413/basalt, AA2024 T3/basalt shows better properties over other composites, they have gained good inter-molecular bonding by provided wettability property [7–10].
3. Experimental procedure 3.1. Coating process The Electroless process is used to deposit copper coatings on basalt fibre as per ASTM B904 00(2014) standards. The continuous basalt fibre of 6 lm diameter was chopped into short fibres of 1 to 2 mm length. The fibres are treated in a muffle furnace for 10 min at a temperature of 500 °C. The basalt fibre surfaces are prepared by cleaning the surface in distilled water, rinsing, washing and drying the surface at 90 °C followed by the coating stages such as sensitizing, activation and metallization. The basalt fibre surfaces are treated with glacial acetic and stannous chloride (SnCl2) which activates the surface and sensitized for the various time duration (5, 10 & 15 min.) by continuous stirring. Fibres are filtered and cleaned with distilled water to have catalytic surfaces; they were treated under ultrasonic agitation with an aqueous solution of palladium chloride (PdCl2) and HCl which provides metallization with copper by exposing the fibres in the open oven for 10 min at 500 °C to remove pyrolytic coatings on the fibre. The activated fibres are immersed into a solution of CuSO4-5H2O held under agitation which produces continuous and crystalline copper coatings with homogeneous thickness.
2. Basalt fiber Basalt is the most common igneous rock formed by the rapid cooling of lava present in the earth’s crust. These rocks are crushed to extract high-quality basalt fibres similar to glass fibre. The fibres are produced in a continuous form igneous basalt rock melt drawing at about 2700° F (1500 °C). The basalt fibre is made from extremely fine fibres of basalt. Basalt fibre is a newcomer to fibre reinforced polymers (FRPs). Structural composites are made from basalt fibres which make good material for concrete, bridge, shoreline structures, and fireproof textile in the aerospace and automotive industries (Fig. 1). Basalt fibre has a density of 2.5–3.05 g/cm3 [3]. They have a temperature range from 452° F to 1200° F ( 269 °C to +650 °C), higher radiation resistance, higher oxidation resistance, higher shear strength and higher compression strength [11]. The stages in Basalt fibre production are melting, homogenization of basalt and extraction of fibres. The basalt fibre is heated only once and cold technologies were used to produce continuous fibres with low energy costs (Tables 1 and 2).
3.2. Preparation of basalt fibre After copper coating the fibres are preheated to 500C to improve the wettability between basalt fibre and molten metal, the preheated fibres are maintained at the same temperature till it was introduced into the molten Al melt. The required quantities of these fibres were pickled in 10% NaOH solution at room temperature for 10 minutes; it was done to remove surface impurities. Those fibres were immersed in a mixture of 1 part nitric acid and 1 part water for one minute and washed by methanol to remove the smut formed. They were dried in air and loaded into different alumina crucibles. 3.3. Casting techniques Some casting techniques used to fabricate different series of aluminium/basalt composites which were studied from previous researcher’s findings are explained. 3.3.1. Stir casting technique Stir casting technique is used to manufacture Aluminium LM25/basalt fibre composite. It is a low-cost process to fabricate discontinuous metal matrix composites. The Induction furnace in the stir casting setup was used to melt the matrix material. The aluminium alloy LM25 of required proportion was taken in a graphite crucible and kept it in the Induction furnace for melting. The basalt fibres were preheated and added to the molten aluminium melt when it reaches a temperature of 600 °C. After the
Fig. 1. Basalt Fibre.
Table 1 Chemical Composition. Chemical Composition of Basalt rocks
SiO2
Al2O3
Fe2O3
MgO
CaO
Na2O
K2O
TiO2
P2O5
MnO
Cr2O3
%
52.8
17.5
10.3
4.63
8.59
3.34
1.46
1.38
0.28
0.16
0.06
Table 2 Mechanical Properties. Fibre Type
Specific Gravity
Tensile Strength (MPa)
Elastic Modulus, (GPa)
Strain at Break, (mm/mm)
Basalt
2.7
400–695 (2800–4800)
12,500–13,000 (86–90)
0.0315
Please cite this article as: C. Brainard Abraham, V. Boobesh Nathan, S. Rajesh Jaipaul et al., Basalt fibre reinforced aluminium matrix composites – A review, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.135
C. Brainard Abraham et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
reinforcement is added the furnace temperature was raised to 800 °C and stirred with a mechanical stirrer consisting of stirring rod and the impeller blade of various geometry and various numbers of blades at 300 RPM for 2 to 3 minutes as it leads to axial flow pattern in the crucible in which forms vortex which leads the mixing of the reinforcement material in the matrix alloy. The cast iron dies were preheated to 100 °C, the hot molten composite is poured into the die. After the casted parts are solidified they were removed from the die and kept for cooling. The casted parts were inspected and prepared for further testing as per ASTM standards. 3.3.2. Squeeze casting technique The composites of aluminium 7075/basalt fibre were fabricated using a squeeze casting technique. In this method the basalt fibres reinforcements were preheated up to 500 °C, the molten aluminium is injected into the interstices of the reinforcement usually called as a preform. The furnace temperature was increased and the composites were stirred at 300 RPM for 2 to 3 minutes. The apparatus consists of a simple die and punch setup with ejector rod to remove the solidified composite. A 150-ton hydraulic press was installed to compress the liquid metal in order to obtain net shapes with sound and dense quality. The die is preheated by a band heater, with the perform inside it to 300–400 °C. The molten composite is then poured into the die and compressed by the hydraulic press at a pressure of 20 to 30 MPa with a constant ram speed of 10 mm/sec. The pressure is maintained for 5– 10 min till the metal is cooled and solidified. The ram is withdrawn and the casted composites were extracted.
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and carbonate dissociation occurs. Further heating leads to component sintering with the melting of the glassy phase, most low melting of minerals and with the polymorphic transformations. The parameters are selected on the basis of heat flow through the basalt fibre by analyzing with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Then the composite mixture was pressed under a uniaxial pressure of 50 MPa and heated at a temperature of 650 °C for 60 min. Argon gas is used to protect the process from the atmosphere. After the composites were pressed the casted samples were taken for further testing. 3.3.5. Hand lay-up method In this method, Fibre Metal Laminates (FML’s) were fabricated. Aluminium 2024-T3/Basalt Fibers/Epoxy resins were used as the composites. The samples of 15 2.5 0.19 cm3 dimensions with 2/1 configuration were fabricated in hand lay-up method. Aluminium sheets were laminated by basalt/epoxy laminates. The basalt fibres were placed on the aluminium sheet and epoxy resin is poured on the surface, similarly, 4 interlayer’s of basalt reinforcements were placed. After laminating the composites, the samples were cured by placing them on a mould at 0.15 MPa and ambient temperature. The pressure is applied to remove excess resin and resulted in the reduction of bubbles formed inside the samples. 4. Mechanical properties 4.1. Hardness
3.3.3. Hand lay-out technique In this method, Aluminium alloy A413/ basalt composites were fabricated. Hand lay-out technique was used to reduce the damage and loss in strength of the basalt fibres. It is a two-step process used to produce composites. The aluminium alloy A413 is melted at a temperature of 620 °C. The basalt fibres were wound in a flat fixture and they were dipped into molten aluminium melt and cooled to room temperature in order to produce aluminium/basalt laminates. The aluminium/basalt laminates were hot pressed in a mould to produce composites. To obtain minimized porosity levels, the composites were weighed in distilled water and air by using electronic balance with 0.1 mg accuracy, then temperature, time and pressure of the hot press was optimized by Archimedes method and mixtures law. 3.3.4. Hot-press sintering (HPS) method In this method, Basalt Fibre/Aluminium composites were fabricated. Hot- Press Sintering method is used to fabricate short fibres. The Basalt short fibre reinforcement of 5 mm length and 10 lm diameter was chosen. The aluminium powder of 5 lm dia in its purest form is chosen as the raw material of the metal matrix. The ultrasonic shaking and velocity mixing process were used to mix the short basalt fibre/ aluminium composites and they are well combined. There are some optimized parameters followed in HPS method to fabricate basalt/aluminium composites, they are as follows: The composite mixture was kept in room temperature and heated to 550 °C at a rate of 10 °C/min. The composite mixture was heated from 550 °C to 650 °C at a rate of 20 °C/min. At the initial stage of heating (550 °C to 650 °C) the processes of hygroscopic moisture evaporation, organic impurities burning, chemically bound water removal,
Hardness is the measure of resistance to the indentation on the surface of the material and also it is the stress required to produce deformation on the surfaces. Brinell hardness testing is a method to evaluate the hardness of the composites. The hardness of the composites is given in the form of Brinell Hardness Number (BHN). From the previous researcher’s findings, it is said that the increase in short basalt fibre content in the composite increases the hardness of the material. It is observed that 2.5 wt% of basalt fibre addition leads to increase in BHN of the composites up to 9.2% and the highest percentage of basalt fibre reinforcement of 7.5 wt% gained maximum hardness of 19.84%. The maximum addition of basalt fibre more than 7.5 wt% leads to a decrease in BHN value due to casting defects and agglomeration. The increase in the hardness of the composites is due to the hardness property of basalt fibre which acts as a barrier to the movement of the dislocations inside the matrix. 4.2. Ultimate tensile strength UTS is the capacity of a material to withstand loads in which the material is elongated, it acts as an opposing force to compressive strength. It is the resistance of a material which has been pulled apart. The Cu coated basalt fibre composites with aluminium posse’s good properties. The UTS increases with increase in weight percentage of the Cu coated basalt fibre reinforcement with aluminium matrix compared to uncoated fibres. The Cu coated basalt reinforcements from 2.5 wt% to 10 wt% in the composite gained increased UTS from 15.5 to 28.7%. The 2.5 wt% of basalt fibre reinforcement gained an increased UTS up to 18.60% and for 10 wt% reinforcement, higher UTS value of 38.75% was found. This is due to good hardness property of the basalt fibre, reduced grain size of the alloy, the difference in thermal expansion, matrix strengthening and proper bonding between alloy and reinforcement which leads to decrease in wear rate and increased strength of the composites.
Please cite this article as: C. Brainard Abraham, V. Boobesh Nathan, S. Rajesh Jaipaul et al., Basalt fibre reinforced aluminium matrix composites – A review, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.135
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4.3. Compressive strength The compressive strength of a material is to resist compressive loads which the material is being pushed together. The Compressive strength of basalt fibre reinforcement in the aluminium matrix alloy for 0 to 2.5 wt% gained an increased value of about 11.98% and up to 10 wt% reinforcement higher value of 41.66% was obtained. The increase in compressive strength is due to the presence of hard basalt fibre reinforcement which imparts high strength to the composite. The crushing strength and rigidity of the fibres make the composites to increase in strength.
The casting techniques such as stir casting technique, squeeze casting technique, hand layout technique, hot press sintering (HPS) method and hand layup method were found to be suitable to fabricate basalt fibre reinforced composites. The hardness, ultimate tensile strength, compressive strength and elastic modulus of basalt fibre reinforced composites increases with increase in basalt fibre reinforcement percentages and also gained good intermolecular bonding with the composites. The ductility of the basalt reinforced composites decreases with increase in reinforcement weight percentages in which it is due to the presence of voids in the composites.
4.4. Elastic modulus Elastic modulus or Young’s modulus is a tendency of a material to resist elastic deformation under different load conditions. The Elastic modulus of Cu coated basalt fibre from 2.5 to 10 wt% in aluminium matrix increases up to 13.26% compared to uncoated fibres. When compared with virgin aluminium alloy the composites with 2.5 wt% gained an increased Young’s modulus value of 3.59% and for 10 wt% highest value of 14.47% was observed. This is due to the alignment of basalt fibre with minimum segregation in the alloy parallel to the axis and homogeneous distribution of the fibres in the matrix. 4.5. Ductility The tendency of a ductile material is to gain toughness when the material undergoes plastic deformation. The ductility or % of elongation of basalt fibre reinforcement from 2.5 to 10 wt% in the aluminium matrix composites decreases up to 33.3% to 43.33% when compared to virgin alloy. This behaviour of the composites is due to the presence of voids which formed during reinforcement interface with the matrix alloy and plastic strains undergone by the reinforcement. This property is a major disadvantage in the basalt fibre/aluminium composites. 5. Conclusion The electroless copper coating process inflated the properties of basalt fibre.
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Please cite this article as: C. Brainard Abraham, V. Boobesh Nathan, S. Rajesh Jaipaul et al., Basalt fibre reinforced aluminium matrix composites – A review, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.135