Sharif Digital Repository

Cu/SiC nanocomposite powders with homogeneously distributed nanosize SiC particles were produced by high energy mechanical milling (MM). Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and micro-hardness and density measurements were performed to understand the effects of microstructure and hardness on compaction behavior during MM. The effects of SiC nanoparticle content and mechanical milling time on apparent density (AD) and tap density (TD) of the nanocomposite powders were systematically investigated. The Hausner ratio (HR), defined as TD to AD, were estimated to evaluate friction between the particles. Increasing MM duration and SiC content resulted... 

The production of porous (SAFFIL) preforms and SAFFIL/SiCP hybrid preforms will be discussed. SAFFIL fibers and SiCP are dispersed into an aqueous medium that consists of colloidal silica binder, distilled water, dispersants and deflocculants using agitation, spontaneous sedimentation, followed by drying and final strengthening. The effect of different process parameters such as various deflocculants and surfactants on the mechanical properties, mixing time and volumetric change of these preforms will also be investigated  

Copper based hybrid composites containing nano-sized silicon carbide and carbon nanotubes reinforcements with minimal porosity were fabricated via mechanical milling followed by hot pressing technique. Microstructures of the powders and consolidated materials were studied using scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and scanning transmission electron microscope. Microstructural characterization of the materials revealed that the addition of nanosized silicon carbide reinforcement lowered the grain growth rate and enhanced the homogenization during mechanical milling. Microhardness measurements and compression test showed considerable improvements in mechanical... 

Nanostructured Cu and Cu-2 vol% SiC nanocomposite were produced by high energy mechanical milling and hot pressing technique. Microstructure development during fabrication process was investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, scanning transmission electron microscope, and electron backscatter diffraction techniques. The results showed that the microstructure of copper and copper-based nanocomposite composed of a mixture of equiaxed nanograins with bimodal and non-random misorientation distribution. The presence of SiC nanoparticles refined the grain structure of the copper matrix while the fraction of low angle grain boundaries was increased. Evaluation of mechanical... 

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to study the mechanical behaviour of β-SiC at nano-scale under tensile loading. Effects of loading rate and tensile temperature on the mechanical properties and failure were studied. Modified embedded-atom method (MEAM) potential and Berendsen thermostat were utilized for modelling. Periodic boundary conditions were employed and the behaviour of material was analyzed under three-axial loading condition at which the stress–strain relation was acceptably size independent. It is shown that with increasing the loading rate from 5 m/s to 70 m/s, the failure strain increases without a remarkable change in the stress–strain relationship. The MD... 

In the present paper, the effect of silicon carbide (SiC) fines was studied on the phase and microstructural properties of bauxite-based low-cement refractory castables (LCC) at different firing temperatures. XRD and SEM techniques were employed to evaluate phase and microstructure analysis, and physical/mechanical properties were measured according to standard methods. The results showed that the oxidation of SiC particles related to the oxygen partial pressure and active/passive oxidation behavior of SiC fines could markedly affect the microstructure and properties of bauxite-based LCC fired at high temperatures. Despite the negative influence of addition of SiC fines on cold mechanical... 

Al2O3-SiC composite ceramics were prepared by pressureless sintering with and without the addition of MgO, TiO2 and Y2O3 as sintering aids. The effects of these compositional variables on final density and hardness were investigated. In the present article at first α-Al2O3 and β-SiC nano powders have been synthesized by sol-gel method separately by using AlCl 3, TEOS and saccharose as precursors. Pressureless sintering was carried out in nitrogen atmosphere at 1600 °C and 1630 °C. The addition of 5 vol.% SiC to Al2O3 hindered densification. In contrast, the addition of nano MgO and nano TiO2 to Al 2O3-5 vol.% SiC composites improved densification but Y2O3 did not have positive effect on... 

A neural network (ANN) model was developed to predict the densification of composite powders in a rigid die under uniaxial compaction. Al-SiC powder mixtures with various reinforcement volume fractions (0-30%) and particle sizes (50 nm to 40 μm) were prepared and their compressibility was studied in a wide range of compaction pressure up to 400 MPa. The experimental results were used to train a back propagation (BP) learning algorithm with two hidden layers. A sigmoid transfer function was developed and found to be suitable for analyzing the compressibility of composite powders with the least error. The trained model was used to study the effect of reinforcement particle size and volume... 

The consolidation behaviour of particulate reinforced metal matrix composite powders during cold uniaxial compaction in a rigid die was studied. Al-SiC powder mixtures with varying SiC particle size, ranging from nanoscale (50 nm) to microscale (40 μm), at different volume fractions up to 30% were used. Based on the experimental results, the effect of the reinforcement particles on the densification mechanisms, i.e. particle rearrangement and plastic deformation, was studied using modified Cooper-Eaton equation. It was found that by increasing the reinforcement volume fraction or decreasing its size, the contribution of particle rearrangement on the densification increases while the plastic... 

Alg -(1, 3, 5, 7, 10 vol%) SiC nanocomposites were produced by mechanical alloying (MA) and double pressing/sintering route. The characteristics of the milled powders and the consolidate specimens were examined using high resolution scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction method. Compression and hardness tests were used to study the effect of SiC volume fraction on the strength of Alg -SiC nanocomposites. It was shown that with increasing the SiC volume fraction, finer particles with narrower size distribution and smaller crystallite size are obtained after MA. During sintering close to the melting point of aluminum, the presence of nanometer-scaled SiC particles was found to... 

An architectural modification method was utilized to improve fracture toughness of discontinuously reinforced aluminum (DRA) composites. Al-DRA composites having a structure similar to that of reinforced concrete were fabricated. The number of reinforcing DRA rods within Al matrix and volume fraction of SiC particles in DRA were altered to evaluate their effect on fracture behavior of these materials. It was found that architectural modification does not have any destructive influence on elastic modulus and yield strength of the composite. Moreover, the success of this method on toughness improvement strongly depends on the occurrence of debonding between Al and DRA regions upon loading  

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a novel solid state welding process for joining materials. In this process a high speed tool is introduced into the weld seam and due to localized frictional heat, plastic deformation and transverse movement along the weld seam, joining is accomplished. In this study aluminum matrix composite A356 + 15%SiCp is chosen for friction stir welding. Fragmentation of SiC particles and silicon needles existing in eutectic phase as well as their homogenous distribution as a result of stirring with high plastic strains, improve mechanical properties such as modulus of elasticity, yield and ultimate strength, elongation and hardness in the weld zone compared to that of... 

In order to investigate the dislocation structure and flow stress evolution of Al-SiCp composite during ARB process, a comprehensive model which describes the evolution of dislocation density is needed. Dislocation density, microstructure and flow stress evolution of Al-SiCp composite are predicted considering the ETMB model, strain and strain rate achieved from the mechanical model of ARB process and shear modulus calculated from the composite model. In addition, models' parameters such as dislocation generation parameters are modified due to the effect of SiC particles. The predicted results are in good agreement with experimental data  

Crystallographic texture is one of the most sensitive parameters for controlling the microstructure of electrodeposited layers. In this work, we study the crystallographic texture of electrodeposited nickel-silicon carbide coatings. The nickel coatings containing SiC nanoparticles and microparticles were electrodeposited from an additive-free sulfate bath containing nickel ions and SiC particles. The effect of current density on the codeposited Ni/SiC was studied. The coatings were analyzed with scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Pole figure studies were done to characterize the evolved crystallographic texture. The X-ray scans followed by Rietveld analysis using the... 

The compressibility behavior of Al-SiC nanocomposite powders was examined and the density-pressure data were analyzed by linear and non-linear compaction equations. SiC particles with an average size of 50 nm were mixed with gas-atomized aluminum powder (40 μm average size) at different volume fractions (up to 20 vol%) and compacted in a rigid die at various pressures. In order to highlight the effect of reinforcement particle size, the compressibility of micrometric SiC particles of two sizes (1 and 40 μm) was also examined. Analysis of the compressibility data indicated hindering effect of the hard ceramic particles on the plastic deformability of soft aluminum matrix, particularly at high... 

In the present work, we used direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) process to fabricate Al-SiC composite parts directly from a three-dimensional CAD model. Al-7Si-0.3Mg powders were blended with various amounts of SiC particles (5, 10, 15, 20 vol%) at two different sizes (7 and 17 μm) and subjected to direct laser sintering using a 200 W continuous wave CO2 laser beam at various scan rates. The densification and microstructural features of the laser-sintered parts were studied. It is shown that the highest density is obtained for the Al alloy-5% SiC (7 μm) composite powder. The melt stability is also found to be improved in the presence of SiC particles. The microstructure of the... 

The aim of the present work is to study the effect of reinforcement content and sintering temperature on the densification and microstructural development during sintering of Al6061/SiC composite compacts. Prealloyed Al6061 powder was mixed with various amounts of SiC particles up to 27 vol.-% and compacted at 350 MPa. Sintering was carried out in a dry nitrogen atmosphere at 580-620°C. It was shown that the presence of SiC particles retards the densification of the prealloyed powder during solid phase sintering and liquid phase sintering. This effect is particularly noticeable at SiC fractions higher than ∼9 vol.-%, at which continuous networks of the hard particles are formed. Increasing... 

In this study, Ni-Fe/SiC nanocomposite coatings with smooth and crack-free surface were successfully prepared by means of the conventional electrodeposition in the presence of saccharin in electrolyte. The goal of this work was to investigate the effect of SiC nanoparticles and saccharin on the structure and properties of permalloy nanocomposite coatings. The nanocomposite coatings were characterized using optical and scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The significant variation in the crystallographic texture of the coatings was observed due to the addition of SiC nanoparticles and saccharin in the electrodeposition... 

The 1050 aluminum sheets are severely deformed by two passes of the constrained groove pressing (CGP) process to obtain the strain of 2.32. Friction stir processing (FSP) is then performed on these specimens at two conditions of with and without SiC nanoparticles. Microhardness measurements indicate that in the state of FSP without any particle, the microhardness of stir zone is decreased due to the recrystallization and grain growth occurrence because of high stored strain energy in the CGPed specimens. In order to enhance the mechanical properties of the stir zone, SiC nanoparticles are used during FSP. Also, the effect of FSP pass number on the distribution of nanoparticles is... 

In this study Al2O3-SiC micro/nanocomposites have been fabricated by mixing alumina nanopowders and silicon carbide micro/nanopowders, followed by hot pressing at 1550, 1600, 1650 and 1700°C. The density, mechanical properties and fracture mode of Al2O3-SiC composites containing different volume fractions (2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, 10% and 15%) of micro/nanoscale SiC particles were investigated and compared with those of alumina. The relative density of composites could reach values very close to theoretical density, especially after sintering at 1700°C. However, relative density declined by increasing the SiC fraction at the same sintering temperature. The flexural strength of composites was best for...