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The choice of suitable inoculants in the grain refinement process and subsequent enhancement of the characteristics of the composites developed is an important materials research topic, having wide scope. In this regard, the present work is aimed at finding the appropriate composition and size of fly ash as inoculants for grain refinement of the aluminum AA 5083 composites. Fly ash particles, which are by products of the combustion process in thermal power plants, contributing to the large-scale pollution and landfills can be effectively utilized as inoculants and interatomic lubricants in the composite matrix–reinforcement subspaces synthesized in the inert atmosphere using ultrasonic assisted stir casting setup. Thus, the work involves the study of the influence of percentage and size of the fly ash dispersions on the tensile and impact strength characteristics of the aluminum AA 5083/7.5SiC composites. The C type of fly ash with the particle size in the series of 40–75 µm, 76–100 µm, and 101–125 µm and weight % in the series of 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, and 2.5 are selected for the work. The influence of fly ash as distinct material inoculants for the grain refinement has worked out well with the increase in the ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and impact strength of the composites, with the fly ash as material inoculants up to 2 wt. % beyond which the tensile and impact characteristics decrease due to the micro coring and segregation. This is evident from the microstructural observations for the composite specimens. Moreover, the role of fly ash as material inoculants is distinctly identified with the X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) for the phase and grain growth epitaxy and the Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) for analyzing the characteristic X-Rays of the fly ash particles as inoculant agents in the energy spectrum.

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In this paper, the recent progress in friction welding of alumina along with its various composites to metals is thoroughly investigated and compared. Among the existing methods of joining ceramics to metals, the friction welding process seems to be a reliable approach that provides promising joint properties. A relationship is established between processing parameters, their resultant microstructures, and their associated mechanical properties. The material properties and the environmental factors are taken into account while manifesting this comparison. The influence of various factors such as rotations per minute (r/min), friction pressure, and friction time on mechanical properties is critically analyzed. However, several challenges that must be addressed appropriately to achieve these joints and to fabricate the same have been discussed.

Addition of reinforcement such as TiC, SiC, Al 2 O 3 , TiO 2 , TiN, etc. to Aluminium matrix for enhancing the mechanical properties has been a well established fact. In-situ method of reinforcement of the Aluminium matrix with ceramic phase like Titanium Carbide (TiC) is well preferred over the Ex-situ method. In the present investigation, Al-Cu alloy (series of 2014 Aluminium alloy) was used as matrix and reinforced with TiC using In-situ process. The Metal Matrix Composite (MMC) material, Al-4.5%Cu/10%TiC developed exhibited higher yield strength, ultimate strength and hardness as compared to Al-4.5%Cu alloy. Percentage increase in yield and ultimate tensile strengths were reported to be about 15% and 24% respectively whereas Vickers hardness increased by about 35%. The higher values in hardness indicated that the TiC particles contributed to the increase of hardness of matrix. Fractured surface of the tensile specimen of the composite material indicated presence of dimpled surface, indicating thereby a ductile type of fracture. During the fabrication of composite, reaction products such as Al 3 Ti, Al 2 Cu and Al 3 C 4 were identified with various morphologies and sizes in metal matrix.