Reinforcement of Cast Iron with the Ashes of Animal Bone for the Production of Engineering Components

Abstract

The durability of engineering components is the main focus and concern of a maintenance engineer. Therefore, the study of reinforcing cast iron (CI) with the ashes of animal bones to enhance the production of engineering components is innovative in the engineering industry. Thus, investigating the potentials of cow bone ash used as composite materials to improve the mechanical properties of CI in engine components construction is a lead way to techno-industrialization. Several methods such as heat treatment analysis of samples, corrosion test, investigation of material hardness, tensile stress, strain and the determination of modulus of elasticity of the sampled materials were carried out in this research. Established results obtained from practical examination showed appreciable improvement for material hardness and tensile stress. As percentage composition of CI to cow bone ash increases. However, the sampled specimens were found more corroded in sea water medium than the fresh water. The corresponding weight loss result of the specimens is from 33.77% – 5.44% for sea water and 7.28% – 3.62% for fresh water respectively over the test duration for the hybrid CI with cow bone ash. Other results are the rate of corrosion of the CI and cow bone hybrids where the sampled specimens in the sea water corrode faster than the fresh water. Conclusively, the carried-out research is found to be feasible, and it is recommended that the hybrid CI with cow bone ash be used for engine components construction to avoid unforeseen damages from engine block explosions, corrosion emission, etc.

Keywords — Bone ash, Cast iron, Corrosion, hardness test, heat treatment.