EVALUATION OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF ALUMINIUM ALLOY 7075 REINFORCED WITH SILICON CARBIDE AND RED MUD COMPOSITE

Red mud is one of the major waste material during production of alumina from bauxite by the Bayer‟s process. It is an insoluble product generated after bauxite digestion with sodium hydroxide at elevated temperature and pressure is known as red mud or „bauxite residue‟. It comprises of oxides of iron, titanium, aluminium and silica along with some other minor constituents. Based on economics as well as environmental related issues, enormous efforts have been directed worldwide towards red mud management issues i.e. of utilization, storage and disposal. Different avenues of red mud utilization are more or less known but none of them have so far proved to be economically viable or commercially feasible. The red mud is classified as dangerous, according to NBR 10004/2004, and world while generation reached over 117 million tons/year. In present work experiments have been conducted under laboratory condition to assess the mechanical properties of the aluminium red mud and silicon carbide composite under different working conditions. This has been possible by fabricating the samples through stir casting technique. To enhance the mechanical properties, the samples were also subjected to heat treatment.