Reinforcement of recycled aluminum-alloy scrap with Saffil ceramic fibers

The development of the automotive industry requires materials to fulfill the following properties; low density, low coefficient of thermal expansion, high wear resistance, high modulus of elasticity, and high strength at ambient and elevated temperatures. Aluminum scrap composite alloys reinforced by ceramic fiber, may fulfill most of the above requirements. In the present work, production of composites by direct conversion of granulated Al-2014 scrap alloy with Al2O3 Saffil fiber into final products by hot extrusion will be introduced. Three different reduction ratios of extrusion will be investigated. The mechanical properties at ambient and elevated temperatures, the microstructure, and fiber length are evaluated. Experimental results show that the relative strengthening of the composites at ambient and elevated temperature up to 360 °C is significantly higher compared to that of the Al-2014 conventional alloy. With added 10 vol.% Al2O3 Saffil fibers, ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and yield strength (YS) at 270 °C are increased by 77 and 86%, respectively. The Vickers hardening increased by 43% and the elastic modulus increased by 27% at ambient temperature. This is due to the fact that the resulted composites contain fibers up to 10 vol.% have a very good internal cohesion.