Open Journal of Metal, 2018, 8, 1-13 http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojmetal ISSN Online: 2164-277X ISSN Print: 2164-2761 DOI: 10.4236/ojmetal.2018.81001 Mar. 27, 2018 1 Open Journal of Metal Microstructural and Mechanical Characterization of Chicken Eggshell-Reinforced Al6061 Matrix Composites Surendra Kumar Dwiwedi 1 , Ashok Kumar Srivastava 2* , Koh-ichi Sugimoto 3 , Manoj Chopkar 4 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, SOE, OP Jindal University, Raigarh, India 2 Department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering, SOE, OP Jindal University, Raigarh, India 3 Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan 4 Department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Raipur, India Abstract Chicken eggshell (ES) is an aviculture byproduct that has been used as the reinforcement in the present study which is recorded worldwide as one of the vilest environmental problems. The present work deals with development of ES-reinforced Al6061 matrix composites by stir-casting process with 0 to 10 wt% of reinforcement at an interval of 2 wt%. The microstructures of the fa- bricated composites were examined by optical and scanning electron micro- scopes with energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM/EDS). Optical micrographs divulge the uniform distribution of reinforcing particles in the matrix while X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns ensure the dispersion of ES particles rein- forcement in Al6061 matrix. The properties measured include density, tensile strength and hardness values. The tensile strength and hardness of composites increase with the addition of ES particles and the maximum values were achieved at 4 wt%. Further increase of ES particles in the matrix leads to de- crease in hardness and strength owing to increase in porosity. Keywords MMCs, Al6061, Eggshell, Stir Casting 1. Introduction Aluminium metal matrix composites (AMCs) are attaining global attention no- wadays in the field of aerospace, automobiles, marine, construction etc. due to their superiority over monolithic alloys which includes mechanical and physical properties like low density, high specific strength, stiffness, elastic modulus, How to cite this paper: Dwiwedi, S.K., Srivastava, A.K., Sugimoto, K. and Chopkar, M. (2018) Microstructural and Mechan- ical Characterization of Chicken Egg- shell-Reinforced Al6061 Matrix Compo- sites. Open Journal of Metal, 8, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojmetal.2018.81001 Received: January 31, 2018 Accepted: March 24, 2018 Published: March 27, 2018 Copyright © 2018 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access