Effect of Hot Pressing Temperature on Microstructure and Tensile Properties of SiC/Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Composites
MA Guonan1,2,WANG Dong1(),LIU Zhenyu1,BI Sheng1,2,ZAN Yuning1,2,XIAO Bolv1,MA Zongyi1
1. Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China 2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Shenyang 110016, China
Cite this article:
MA Guonan, WANG Dong, LIU Zhenyu, BI Sheng, ZAN Yuning, XIAO Bolv, MA Zongyi. Effect of Hot Pressing Temperature on Microstructure and Tensile Properties of SiC/Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Composites. Acta Metall Sin, 2019, 55(10): 1319-1328.
Particulate reinforced aluminum matrix composites have been widely used in industrial fields. In general, high strength aluminium alloys, such as 2024Al are employed to produce stronger composites. However, the composites with high strength Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys as the matrices are paid relative attentions. Therefore, the corresponding optimization for fabrication parameters has not been well understood. In the present work, SiC particles with volume fraction of 15% reinforced Al-7.5Zn-2.8Mg-1.7Cu (mass fraction, %) composites were fabricated using powder metallurgy (PM) technique at hot pressing temperatures of 500, 520, 540 and 560 ℃. TEM, EPMA and tensile test were used to study the effect of hot pressing temperature on the microstructure and tensile properties of SiC/Al-Zn-Mg-Cu composites. The measured densities indicated that all the composites were completely condensed, no pores were observed. Undissolved phase containing Mg and Cu segregated in matrix of the composites hot pressed at 500 and 520 ℃, resulting in instable tensile properties. With increasing hot pressing temperature to 540 ℃, Mg and Cu were uniformly distributed in the composites which exhibited the stable tensile properties. With further increasing temperature to 560 ℃, Mg segregated around SiC particles due to interface reaction. In this case, the content of MgZn2 phase was decreased, resulting in the reduction of tensile strength. HAADF-STEM and EDS analyses showed that the interface compounds were oxide of Mg and coarse MgZn2 phase.
Fund: National Key Research and Development Program of China(52017YFB0703104);National Natural Science Foundation of China(51771193);National Natural Science Foundation of China(U1508216)
Table 1 Measured density and relative density of SiC/Al-7.5Zn-2.8Mg-1.7Cu composites hot pressed at different temperatures
Fig.1 OM images of as-extruded SiC/Al-7.5Zn-2.8Mg-1.7Cu composites hot pressed at 500 ℃ (a), 520 ℃ (b), 540 ℃ (c) and 560 ℃ (d) (Solid lines in Fig.1 indicate SiC particle poor band-like zones)
Fig.2 Homogeneity distributions of SiC particles in as-extruded SiC/Al-7.5Zn-2.8Mg-1.7Cu composites
Fig.3 XRD spectra of as-extruded SiC/Al-7.5Zn-2.8Mg-1.7Cu composites hot pressed at different temperatures
Fig.4 SE-SEM image (a) and elemental distribution maps of Zn (b), O (c), Mg (d) and Cu (e) in T6-treated SiC/Al-7.5Zn-2.8Mg-1.7Cu composites hot pressed at 500 ℃ (m—atomic fraction)
Fig.5 SE-SEM images (a, e, i) and elemental distribution maps of Zn (b, f, j), Mg (c, g, k) and Cu (d, h, l) in T6-treated SiC/Al-7.5Zn-2.8Mg-1.7Cu composites hot pressed at 520 ℃ (a~d), 540 ℃ (e~h) and 560 ℃ (i~l) (Arrows show the segregations)
Fig.6 TEM images of the interface of T6-treated SiC/Al-7.5Zn-2.8Mg-1.7Cu composites hot pressed at 500 ℃ (a), 520 ℃ (b), 540 ℃ (c), 560 ℃ (d, e), and HAADF-STEM image of Fig.6e (f) (Inset in Fig.6f shows the EDS analysis result of the interface reaction products)
Fig.7 TEM image and elemental distribution maps of interface of T6-treated SiC/Al-7.5Zn-2.8Mg-1.7Cu composites hot pressed at 560 ℃
Hot pressing temperature
℃
Tensile strength
MPa
Yield strength
MPa
Elongation
%
500
67913
64519
2.80.6
520
6758
63710
3.00.4
540
6716
6326
3.20.6
560
65810
62010
3.40.4
Table 2 Tensile properties of T6-treated SiC/Al-7.5Zn-2.8Mg-1.7Cu composites hot pressed at different temperatures
Fig.8 SEM fractographs of T6-treated SiC/Al-7.5Zn-2.8Mg-1.7Cu composites hot pressed at 500 ℃ (a), 520 ℃ (b), 540 ℃ (c) and 560 ℃ (d) (Solid lines show tearing edges. Inset in Fig.8d shows the interface crack)
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