Authors: R D Schueller F E Wawner
Publish Date: 2013/10/28
Volume: 26, Issue: 12, Pages: 3287-3291
Abstract
It is well known that the microstructure of metalmatrix composite materials is significantly different from that of the unreinforced matrix Heat treatments which optimized strength values in the matrix therefore no longer do so in the composite It is thus beneficial to find these variations in the heat treatment process and to pinpoint the microstructural mechanisms responsible It is known that in addition to a higher dislocation density the composite also has a very fine grain size and many whisker interfacial nucleation sites This study has found that the time required for solutionizing appears to be much shorter in the composite primarily due to the very small grain size It was also observed that artificial ageing was not very effective in the composite since the precipitates nucleated and grew on the whisker interfaces therefore only natural ageing was necessary to achieve peak tensile and yield strengths
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