Development Of an Al-4.1%Cu-1.7%Mg Alloy Reinforced with Periwinkle Shell Ash (Turritella Communis) Particulate for Lightweight Engineering Applications

It was investigated in this study how a periwinkle shell ash (PSA) reinforced Al-4.1%Cu-1.7%Mg alloy can be developed for lightweight engineering applications. Ash from the periwinkle shells (Turritella communis) collected from Calabar, Nigeria and calcined at 1200°C for 5 hours was characterised using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). CaO (40.84%), SiO₂ (32.84%), Al₂O₃ (10.20%), and Fe₂O₃ (7.02%) made up the majority of the ash, according to XRF analysis. The composites 0 wt % PSA, 5 wt % PSA, 10 wt % PSA, 15 wt % PSA, 20 wt % PSA, 25 wt % PSA and composite of 30 wt % PSA were produced by double stir casting process. Standard procedures were employed to estimate the mechanical parameters (impact energy, yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and hardness) and physical qualities (density and porosity). Data was collected three times for each test and analysed using both Python and MINITAB. The results showed that the porosity increasingly changed from 0.09% to 0.33% and the density increasingly changed from 2.93 to 2.60 g/cm³ (11.3%), as the concentration of PSA increased. Hardness rose by 58.2%, from 55.47 to 87.73 HRF. Ultimately, the strength of the material in terms of ultimate tensile strength (UTS) showed an increase up to 25 weight percent PSA (31.7% increase) before again dropping at 30 weight percent PSA (w/PSA). This trend was also observed for yield strength (maximum of 151.60 N/mm2 with 25 weight percent of PSA (31.2% higher) and impact energy (a decrease from 10.00 to 4.80 J, 52.0% lower). It was observed that over the optimum PSA concentration of 25 wt. percent, performance was hindered by particle agglomeration. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to perform multi-response characterisation of the composite and to generate contour plots and 3D surface graphs, and to do desirability optimisation to confirm the optimum reinforcement content. Indubitably, the statistical analysis (ANOVA and Tukey HSD) indicated that the PSA concentration had significant effects (p < 0.05) on all the properties evaluated. In this work, periwinkle shell ash which is a common farm waste was determined to be a low-cost and low-energy-consuming reinforcement for Al-Cu-Mg alloys.