Microstructure and mechanical behavior of 6061 al alloy reinforced with SiC nanoparticles

A. KNOWLES; X. JIANG; M. GALANO; F. AUDEBERT

Turin

Congreso; XX International Symposium on Metastable, Amorphous and Nanostructured Materials; 2013

Particulate reinforced Al alloy composites are attractive materials for automotive and aerospace applications due to their lightweight and combined properties of high strength and ductility. Most of the studies so far mainly concentrate on the mechanical properties of the Al alloy composites reinforced with micro-sized particles and the effects of nano-sized reinforcements on the mechanical properties have not been studied thoroughly yet. In the present work, 6061 Al alloy reinforced with SiC nanoparticles has been produced by high energy ball milling, compaction, hipping and extrusion. Both microstructural characterization and mechanical property tests have been carried out on as extruded and T6 heat treated nanocomposites to compare with the properties of micro-sized Al alloy composites. The present work shows a uniform distribution of SiC nanoparticles within 6061 Al alloy matrix indicating that powder processing routes can be successfully utilized to produce nanocomposites. Many factors, such as reinforcement size, weight fraction and heat treatment conditions, all affect the microstructure and in turn the overall properties of materials. The microhardness and room temperature tensile strength of 6061 Al alloy reinforced with SiC nanoparticles has a considerable improvement compared with either the monolithic Al alloy and micro-particle reinforced Al composites in literature.