A review of friction stir joining of SiCp/Al composites

SiCp/Al composites have excellent comprehensive properties and have been widely used in aerospace,automotive industry and other fields.Due to the huge difference in performance between SiC particles and matrix alloys,traditional fusion welding methods are difficult to meet the join requirements of SiCp/Al composites.Friction stir joining(friction stir welding),as a solid phase joining process,has been proved to be a new technology with fine prospect in joining SiCp/Al composites compared with fusion welding process.Although some progress has been made in recent years,there are still full of challenges.In this paper,the research status of friction stir joining of SiCp/Al composites in recent years is expatiated,including the weldability of SiCp/Al composites,the macrostructure and the microstructure of joints,mechanical properties of joints,and tool wear and monitoring.Furthermore,the existing challenges of friction stir joining of SiCp/Al composites are summarized and the future development directions are prospected.

Kinetic role of Cu content in reaction process, behavior and their relationship among Cu-Zr-C system

The influence of Cu content on the reaction process, reaction behavior and obtained products in the Cu-ZrC system, as well as their relationships, were investigated. The results showed that Zr C was synthesized through the diffusion and dissolution of C into a Cu-Zr liquid. Increasing the Cu content enhanced the amount of Cu-Zr liquid formed at the early stage but decreased the amount of C atoms dissolving into the melt at unit time. Consequently, the ignition time initially decreased and then increased. Conversely, with an increased Cu content, the energy required for igniting the neighboring unreacted powders increased,while the heat released by the reaction and the dwell time of the compact at high temperatures decreased.These effects then resulted in the reduction of combustion wave velocity, combustion temperature and Zr C particle size. Furthermore, the synthesis of ZrC is a multistage process, which provides a nonuniform distributed Zr C particle size. The sub-μm Zr C particle reinforced Cu matrix composite was fabricated by adding a ZrC-Cu master alloy prepared through a self-propagating high-temperature synthesis reaction into liquid Cu.