Processing and characterization of the microstructure and mechanical properties of Al6061–TiB_(2) composite

In the present research,aluminum metal matrix composites were processed by the stir casting technique.The effects of TiB2 reinforcement particles,severe plastic deformation through accumulative roll bonding(ARB),and aging treatment on the microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties were also evaluated.Uniaxial tensile tests and microhardness measurements were conducted,and the microstructural characteristics were investigated.Notably,the important problems associated with cast samples,including nonuniformity of the reinforcement particles and high porosity content,were solved through the ARB process.At the initial stage,particle-free zones,as well as particle clusters,were observed on the microstructure of the composite.However,after the ARB process,fracturing phenomena occurred in brittle ceramic particles,followed by breaking down of the fragments into fine particles as the number of rolling cycles increased.Subsequently,composites with a uniform distribution of particles were produced.Moreover,the tensile strength and microhardness of the ARB-processed composites increased with the increase in the reinforcement mass fraction.However,their ductility exhibited a different trend.With post-deformation aging treatment(T6),the mechanical properties of composites were improved because of the formation of fine Mg2Si precipitates.

Effect of mechanical alloying on sinterability and phase evolution in pressure-less sintered TiB_(2)-TiC ceramics

Phase relation and microstructure evolution in the pressure-less sintered TiB_(2)‒TiC ceramics preceded with mechanical alloying were systematically studied by a combination of SEM analysis.WC debris from milling balls promotes sintering by dissolving into the TiC phase to achieve dense microstructures at 1600℃.Variation of W solution in TiC grains exposes two types of core-rim structures,with no or more W in dark and white cores respectively but with common medium W in both rims.Diminishing whitecores reveal an exchange reaction between WC and TiC via mechanical alloying to form the Ti_(1-z)W_(z)C phase prior to sintering.The dark-cores inherit from the as-milled TiC power to further enable the reprecipitation of rims from a mixed liquid-phase,which facilitated also the anisotropic growth of TiB_(2) grains.The dark-cores grow persistently in the second-step at 2000℃ enabled by this liquid-phase,which coarsens the TiB2 grains too.With more alloyed phase,sintering was insufficient at 1500℃ with only the surface fluidity from the primary powders,and the second-step sintering increased the fluidity in the liquid-phase to fully densify the binary microstructure.Re-distribution of the alloyed W by two-step sintering rationalizes the evolution process of the binary microstructures and leads to better understanding of the mechanical behaviors.