Microstructures and mechanical properties of Al-base composite materials reinforced by Al-Cu-Fe particles

In this study, we produced four composite materials with Al-based matrix reinforced by Al-Cu-Fe particles initially of the quasicrystalline (QC) phase. The processing route was a gas-pressure infiltration of QC particle preforms by molten commercial Al and Al alloys. The resulting composites were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) working in the energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) mode and by X-ray diffraction (XRD). It is shown that such a synthesis technique leads to the formation of various phases resulting from specific diffusion processes. Compression tests were performed at constant strain rate in the temperature range 290-770K. The stress-strain curves look similar to those of Al-Cu-Fe poly-quasicrystals and show the yield point, the origin of which is however of very different nature. Composite deformation is recognised to occur through the rupture of a hard phase skeleton and localised plastic deformation in the matrix. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.