Wear and Corrosion Susceptibility of Recycled Aluminium Alloys Reinforced with Melon Shells Ash Particles

Abstract The use of aluminium is often constrained by insufficient tribological and corrosion performance. Developing sustainable aluminium-agro-waste composites provides a potential solution, yet the balance between enhanced mechanical behaviour and susceptibility to corrosion remains inadequately understood. This study examined the wear and corrosion behaviour of composites produced using melon shell ash as the reinforcement and aluminium waste cans as the matrix. The melon shell ash was added to the aluminium matrix in weight percentages of 5, 10, 15, and 20 to produce the composites via the stir casting technique. The corrosion investigation revealed that the melon shell ash lowers the composites’ potential to resist corrosion, causing them to suffer pitting corrosion. The corrosion rate increased from 1.32 × 10⁻ 3  mm/year at 0 wt% to 2.96 × 10⁻ 3  mm/year at 20 wt% implying that the corrosion is mitigated more in the unreinforced alloy than in the composites. However, the ash improved the wear resistance of the composites with the minimum wear rate of 1.66 × 10 –4 mm 3  Nm −1 recorded at 15 wt% addition. These outcomes suggest a trade-off where the melon shell ash enhances the wear resistance but compromises the corrosion stability. This study highlights the promising potential of incorporating ash from melon shells into aluminium alloy matrix to enhance resistance to mechanical degradation, addressing a gap in the literature and providing the optimal design of agricultural waste-based lightweight composites.