THE POTENTIALS OF SNAILSHELL AS A REINFORCEMENT FOR DISCARDED ALUMINIUM BASED MATERIALS.

               ABSTRACT

Snail  shells  and  discarded  aluminium  components  are  of  low  economic  values,  and are  often  considered  as  environmental  pollutants.  Finding  ways  of  utilizing  these  supposed wastes  is  consequently  a  direct  way  of  creating  wealth  from  wastes.  Snail  shell  particles  are known  for  their  hardness,  and  thus  considered  as  good  alloying  agent  for  aluminum  based composites.  In  this  project  report,  the  potential  of  snail  shell  particles  as  reinforcement  agent in Al-snail shell particulate composites is reported.   Snail  shell  particles  of  weight  fraction  ranging  from  16  to  48  wt.%  and  size  of  200, 400  and  600  μm  were  added  to  aluminium  obtained  from  discarded  aluminum  pistons  and roofing  sheets  during  casting.  The  microstructures  of  the  composites  were  examined  under optical metallurgical microscope.  The  tensile  strength  and hardness were  measured,  and these properties were optimized using  Box  Box Behnken  experimental design approach.   The  results  showed  that,  at  48  wt.%  and  600  μm  particle  size,    the  tensile  strength  and hardness  are  maximized  to  236  MPa  and  48.3  HRF  respectively  compared  to  the  tensile strength  of  92.4  MPa  and  hardness  of  29.2  HRF  for  the  unalloyed  samples.  These  increases are  attributed to the distribution of snail shells in the ductile Al alloy  matrix.   This  indicates  that  both  the  tensile  strength  and  hardness  are  significantly  enhanced, and can be used  as a low  cost reinforcement for engineering  applications.