Fabrication and Mechanical Properties of Bioinspired Mg-Based Composites Reinforced by Stainless Steel Fibers
XIE Liwen1,2, ZHANG Lilong3, LIU Yanyan1, ZHANG Mingyang1, WANG Shaogang4, JIAO Da1, LIU Zengqian1(), ZHANG Zhefeng1()
1 Shi -changxu Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China 2 Nano Science and Technology Institute, University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou 215123, China 3 State Key Laboratory of Light Alloy Foundry Technology for High-End Equipment, Shenyang Research Institute of Foundry Co. Ltd., Shenyang 110022, China 4 Shenyang National Laboratory for Material Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Cite this article:
XIE Liwen, ZHANG Lilong, LIU Yanyan, ZHANG Mingyang, WANG Shaogang, JIAO Da, LIU Zengqian, ZHANG Zhefeng. Fabrication and Mechanical Properties of Bioinspired Mg-Based Composites Reinforced by Stainless Steel Fibers. Acta Metall Sin, 2024, 60(6): 760-769.
Mg and Mg-based alloys are distinguished by their high specific strength-to-density ratios but demonstrate low strengths at ambient to elevated temperatures. Producing Mg-based composites offers an effective means of strengthening Mg. Nevertheless, the mechanical properties of Mg-based composites are primarily dependent on their architectures. Here, bioinspired Mg-based composites with fish-scale-like orthogonal plywood and double-twisted Bouligand-type (i.e., double-Bouligand) architectures were fabricated by the pressureless infiltration of an Mg melt into the woven contextures of stainless steel fibers. The phase constitution, microstructure, and tensile properties of the composites at room temperature and 200oC were compared with a composite where stainless steel fibers were randomly oriented in-plane. The relationships between the microstructure and mechanical properties were also explored. The results showed that the stainless steel fibers played a notable role in strengthening the composites and were pulled out from the Mg matrix to promote plastic deformation and energy consumption. The mechanical properties of the composites were closely associated with their microstructures, with fish-scale-like architectures displaying higher strengths and larger plasticity than the randomly oriented ones. In particular, the double-Bouligand architecture allowed coordinated deformation between the fibers of different orientations and promoted crack deflection along the fibers, thereby alleviating the localization of deformation and damage in the composite. Therefore, it bestowed larger plasticity at room temperature and higher tensile strength at high temperature. By exploiting new bioinspired architectures, this study provides guidance for optimizing the architectural design of Mg-based composites to improve their mechanical properties.
Fund: National Key Research and Development Program of China(2020YFA0710404);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52173269;51871216;52101160);Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences(2019191)
Corresponding Authors:
LIU Zengqian, professor, Tel: (024)83970116, E-mail: zengqianliu@imr.ac.cn; ZHANG Zhefeng, professor, Tel: (024)23971043, E-mail: zhfzhang@imr.ac.cn
Fig.2 Schematics of the spatial arrangement of stainless steel fibers in three-dimensional space in the Mg-based composites with random stacking (a), orthogonal plywood (b), and double-Bouligand (c) architectures
Fig.3 SEM images of the through-thickness cross-sections of the Mg-based composites with random stacking (a), orthogonal plywood (b), and double-Bouligand (c) architectures (Light gray: stainless steel fiber; dark gray: Mg matrix)
Fig.4 XRT volume renderings of the spatial arrangement of the stainless steel fibers in the Mg-based composites with random stacking (a), orthogonal plywood (b), and double-Bouligand (c) architectures
Fig.5 XRD spectrum (a), SEM image (b), and corresponding area distributions of elements Mg (c), Fe (d), and Cr (e) measured by EDS of the Mg-based composites by taking the orthogonal plywood architecture as an example
Fig.6 Representative tensile engineering stress-strain curves of the Mg-based composites with different architectures at room temperature (a) and 200oC (b) compared to pure Mg
Fig.7 Low (a-c) and high (d-f) magnified fracture morphologies of the Mg-based composites with random stacking (a, d), orthogonal plywood (b, e), and double-Bouligand (c, f) architectures after tensile testing at room temperature
Fig.8 Low (a-c) and high (d-f) magnified fracture morphologies of the Mg-based composites with random stacking (a, d), orthogonal plywood (b, e), and double-Bouligand (c, f) architectures after tensile testing at 200oC
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