Preparation of Aluminium Foam using Recycled Beverage Cans, NaCl salt and Discarded Dry Battery

International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Processing Vol. 4: Issue 2

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Preparation of Aluminium Foam using Recycled Beverage Cans, NaCl salt and Discarded Dry Battery Powder Francis Xavier L.1, Ben Rajesh1, Ajith C. Ravi2, Madan Kumar T.S.2 1

Assistant Professor, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Faculty of Mechanical and Automobile Engineering, Kanminike, Kumbalgodu, Mysore Road, Kengeri-Bengaluru, Karnataka, India 2 U.G. Student, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Faculty of Mechanical and Automobile Engineering, Kanminike, Kumbalgodu, Mysore Road, Kengeri-Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

ABSTRACT In this work, an attempt has been made to prepare Aluminium Foam by using recycled beverage cans, dry battery powder and Sodium Chloride (NaCl) powder particles. Three samples were prepared with the following combinations: Sample I = 2 kg of recycled Aluminium cans + 10 wt. % of NaCl salt and 10 wt. % of dry battery powder particles; Sample II = 2 kg of recycled Aluminium cans + 15 wt. % of NaCl salt and 15 wt. % of dry battery powder particles; Sample III = 2 kg of recycled Aluminium cans + 20 wt. % of NaCl salt and 20 wt. % of dry battery powder particles. The prepared samples were subjected to hardness test using Brinell harness testing apparatus. From the experimental results, the sample-III has shown better hardness when compared to the other samples taken for the investigation, indicates that increasing the reinforcement content increases the hardness of the aluminium foam.

Keywords: Aluminium Foam, Dry Battery Powder, Recycled Beverage cans, Hardness test. *Corresponding Author E-mail: francis.xavier@christuniversity.in

INTRODUCTION Aluminium foams are generally light weight, non-toxic, recyclable, nonflammable and ecologically harmless [1– 4]. According to [5], aluminium foam owns very good combined of properties like very high toughness and good acoustic property, low thermal conductivity and high impact energy absorbing capacity which makes them unique and sought after materials in industries.

Aluminium foams have relatively isotropic structure with many randomly scattered pores occupying about 50% to 90% of its total volume. Aluminium foam inherits many good qualities of its parent material like good corrosion resistance, strength and many more. However, the conductivity of foams i.e. both electrical and thermal

conductivity is typically lower than that of aluminium because most of the volume of foam is occupied by thin wall pores.

Additionally, due to the uneven distribution of the porous structure inside the foam, the foam can be used as very good vibration dampers. This damping of vibrations inside the porous structure of the foam cause a very little deflection to the pore structure of the foam and it can easily reduce the intensity of the vibrations and foams are widely used in damping applications. Thus, when the foam is attacked by any external vibratory force, the foam structure absorbs the vibrational energy inside the porous structure and their energy will be transformed into thermal energy to which the foams are resistant.

Aluminium foams are widely used in many applications like railways,

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Preparation of Aluminium Foam using Recycled

Francis et al.

automobile, aerospace, ship building, especially for light weight construction, heat insulation, heat exchangers, catalytic converters, vibration dampers, and making of household items because of their desirable properties like very low density, high stiffness, good heat withstanding and sound absorbing properties. However there are some limitations which hinders their usage like retaining repeatability in its properties, production cost and obtaining homogenous porosity is very difficult [3,6,7].

NaCl salt and 15 wt. % of dry battery powder particles; Sample III = 2 kg of recycled Aluminium cans + 20 wt. % of NaCl salt and 20 wt. % of dry battery powder particles. Fig.1 shows the dry battery powder which is used as a thickening agent in this work. Fig. 2 shows the SEM image of the dry battery powder.

As the need for metal foam is increasing drastically, there are many new innovative methods being developed by researchers around the globe. However, the two major methods like liquid metallurgy and powder metallurgy route are the two major methods which are followed widely. Both these methods have both their own strength and weakness. Near net shape manufacturing concepts, complex shaped structures can be easily made by powder metallurgy method. On the other hand, liquid metallurgy process is cost-effective when compared to powder metallurgy method. In this work, Aluminium foam was prepared by remelting the beverage cans in a furnace, which is less expensive and thus the cost of preparing aluminium foam can be brought down drastically.

Aluminium foam was prepared in a stainless steel closed mould by melting the Aluminium cans up to 750 degree Celsius.

Then the molten Aluminium was poured into the stainless steel mould which contains the NaCl salt and the battery powder. During the casting process, Manganese 1% and 2% of calcium powder were mixed and heated inside the furnace in order to improve the wettability and viscosity of the melt. Then the mould was removed from the furnace and argon gas at the pressure of 3 bar pressure was passed inside the stainless steel closed mould. A special type of stirrer along with the inlet pipe for argon gas as shown in the Fig.4 was used to supply the argon gas for the foaming process. Then the mould was allowed to cool down for two hours. After two hours of cooling time, the prepared aluminium foam was removed from the mould which contains the foaming agent (NaCl). Then the NaCl was removed from the aluminium foam by placing the foam in hot water which was maintained at 100 degree Celsius.

PREPARATION OF THE ALUMINIUM FOAM During the foam preparation process, there are many process parameters that has to be concentrated during the preparation of the foam like; type of foaming agent, matrix material, melt temperature, pressure, time period, foam stabilizers, particle size, density of foam stabilizer and the decomposition temperature of foaming agents[3]. Three samples were prepared with the following combinations: Sample I = 2 kg of recycled Aluminium cans + 10 wt. % of NaCl salt and 10 wt. % of dry battery powder particles; Sample II = 2 kg of recycled Aluminium cans + 15 wt. % of

Fig.3 shows the EDAX test report of the dry battery powder showing the presence of Manganese, Zinc, Cl and oxides as the major elements.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Figures 5–7 show the photographic image of the prepared samples. The density of the sample 1, 2 and 3 was measured as 0.42 g/cm3, 0.54 g/cm3 and 0.58 g/cm3 respectively. The prepared samples were subjected to hardness test using Brinell hardness testing machine. The test

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International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Processing eISSN: 2455-5576 Vol. 4: Issue 2

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specimens were cut to the size of 25 mm x 20 mm test specimens. The specimens were polished before conducting the test.

A load of 150 kg was applied on the test specimen for 15 seconds. Table 1 shows the recorded hardness value of the three samples.

Fig. 1. Dry Battery Powder.

From the experimental results, it is clear that the sample 3 which is prepared by reinforcing 2 kg of recycled Aluminium cans + 20 wt. % of NaCl salt and 20 wt. % of dry battery powder particles has shown very good results compared to the other samples taken for the investigation.

Fig. 2. SEM Image of battery powder.

Fig. 3. EDAX test report of dry battery powder.

Fig.4. Experimental set up with stirrer along with inlet pipe for argon gas flow.

Table 1. Hardness Test results Sl.NO Sample 1.

2.

3.

Hardness Value (BHN) Trail -1 Trail – 2 Trail—3 Sample -1 32.2 32.4 32.3 Sample -2 37.8 38.2 38 Sample -3 54.5 55 55.1

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Average Hardness value (BHN) 32.3 38 54.8

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Preparation of Aluminium Foam using Recycled

Fig.5. Sample 1

.

Francis et al.

Fig.6. Sample 2.

From the results, it is clear that, by increasing the reinforcement content increases the hardness value of the samples. From the EDAX test report of the dry battery powder, we can see Zinc (Zn) as one of the major element available in the dry battery powder. According to [8], Addition of Zinc in Aluminium based alloys improves the wear resistance, excellent castability and also possess good mechanical properties like high strength, high hardness.

CONCLUSION Aluminium foam was successfully prepared by Foam by using recycled beverage cans, dry battery powder and Sodium Chloride (NaCl) powder particles.

From the experimental results the following conclusions were made.

• Increasing the amount of dry battery powder increases the hardness value of the prepared samples.

• The density of the prepared foam increases with increase in the reinforcement content.

• From the hardness test, sample 3 , prepared by reinforcing 2 kg of recycled Aluminium cans + 20 wt. % of NaCl salt and 20 wt. % of dry battery powder particles has shown better results when compared to the other samples taken for investigation.

Fig.7. Sample 3.

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[3] Vinay B.U and Sreenivas Rao K.V, Development of Aluminum Foams

by Different Methods and Evaluation of its Density by Archimedes Principle, Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, 2012; Vol. 2, (4), pp. 148–152.

[4] Raj R.E., Parameswaran V and Daniel B.S, Comparison of quasistatic and dynamic compression behavior of closed-cell aluminum foam, Materials Science and Engineering A 2009; vol.526(1–2) pp11–15.

[5] Banhart J. and Baumeister J. Production Methods For Metallic Foams, Materials Research Symposium Proceedings, 1998; Vol.521, pp.121–132.

[6] Ashok Kumar B, Naga Kumar C and Chengal Reddy V, Production of

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Low Cost Aluminium Foams, International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, April 2014, Special Issue-(3), pp. 40–44 [7] Ashby M.F and Tianjian L.U. Metal foams A survey, Science in china series -B, 2003; Vol.46, No.(6), pp.521–532.

[8] Mukundadas Prasanna Kumar, Kanakuppi Sadashivappa, Gundenahalli Puttappa Prabhukumar , Satyappa Basavarajappa, Dry Sliding Wear Behaviour of Garnet Particles Reinforced Zinc-Aluminium Alloy Metal Matrix Composites, Materials Science, 2006; Vol. 12, issue No. (3), pp.209–213.

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