1 School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China 2 School of Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China 3 School of Materials Science and Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350116, China
Cite this article:
Hao DING, Xiping CUI, Changshou XU, Aibin LI, Lin GENG, Guohua FAN, Junfeng CHEN, Songhe MENG. Fabrication and Mechanical Characteristics of Multi-Laminated Aluminum Matrix Composites Reinforcedby Continuous Basalt Fibers. Acta Metall Sin, 2018, 54(8): 1171-1178.
Continuous basalt fiber (CBF) is a new type of performance outstanding inorganic nonmetallic material. In comparison with carbon fibers, basalt fibers exhibit greater failure strain as well as better impact and fire resistance with less poisonous fumes and 50% cost reduction. It is also known that basalt fibers display higher mechanical properties, better chemical stability and superior thermal and electrical insulation as compared with glass fibers. Basalt fiber has been widely used as a reinforcing composite material for construction industry and for preparation of polymer matrix composites. As high-performance low-cost reinforcements, basalt fibers should have a great potential for strengthening metal matrix composites (MMCs) and reducing their preparation cost. However, so far, few reports focused on the investigation on metal matrix composites reinforced by continuous basalt fibers, especially for lack of feasible fabrication technologies. Thus, in the present work, two-dimensional continuous basalt fiber cloth and Al-12Si alloys foils were selected as raw materials and alternately stacked to obtain a sandwiched structure. Subsequently, vacuum pressure infiltration was utilized to fabricate aluminum matrix composites reinforced by continuous basalt fibers (CBF/Al) with volume fraction of 65% successfully. Influence of infiltration parameters on microstructure evolution of resulting aluminum matrix composites was investigated and formation mechanism of multi-layered structure of CBF/Al composite was clarified. Moreover, mechanical properties of the multi-layered CBF/Al composite were evaluated. The results showed that when the infiltration parameters were 660 ℃, 10 MPa and 10 min, fully dense CBF/Al composite could be achieved and the novel composite displayed a unique multi-layered structure, namely continuous basalt fibers in forms of cruciform crossing distributed within aluminum alloys matrix. It is noteworthy that no obvious chemical reaction happened between continuous basalt fibers and Al-12Si alloys, and sound metallurgical bonding interface between them was obtained due to the interdiffusion of Al and Si elements. Unfortunately, mechanical properties of multi-layered CBF/Al composite did not reach a desired level, which was attributed to (i) decreasing of effective load-carrying capacity due to the imperfect distribution manner of continuous basalt fibers and (ii) deteriorating of intrinsic mechanical properties at high temperature.
Fig.1 Schematic of fabrication of multi-laminated aluminum matrix composites reinforced by continuous basalt fibers (CBF/Al) using pressure infiltration method
Fig.2 Low (a) and high (b) magnified SEM images of two-dimensional continuous basalt fiber cloth
Fig.3 Influences of infiltration temperature on microstructure of CBF/Al composites (Inset in Fig.3a shows the enlarged view) (a) 630 ℃ (b) 660 ℃
Fig.4 XRD spectrum of CBF/Al multi-laminated composites prepared by pressure infiltration at 660 ℃
Fig.5 SEM image of interface between continuous basalt fiber and Al-Si alloy (a) and EDS maps of elements Al (b), Si (c), O (d), Ca (e) and Fe (f) adjacent to the interface
Fig.6 TEM image of multi-layered CBF/Al composite (a) and the characteristic of interfacial bonding between continuous basalt fiber and aluminum matrix in zone 1 of Fig.6a (b) (The top right and bottom left insets in Fig.6b show the SAED patterns of aluminum alloy matrix and basalt fiber, respectively)
Fig.7 SEM images of the multi-layered CBF/Al composite fracture surface (a) morphology of fracture surface in perpendicular to laminate plane direction (b) pull-out and breakage of continuous basalt fibers (c) debonding and tearing-out feature
Fig.8 Effects of heat treatment temperature on diameter size (a) and ultimate tensile strength (b) of continuous basalt fiber
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