A Study of the Microstructure, Texture and Tensile Properties of 1060/Al-TiC/1060 Sandwich Composites Prepared by Hot-Roll Bonding

Abstract

Microstructure and texture development in Al/AMCs sandwich composites and the connection between the tensile properties and microstructure/texture have not been fully understood. In this study, the AA 1060 aluminum alloy and spark plasma sintering (SPS) processed Al-TiC composite were prepared into the 1060/Al-TiC/1060 sandwich composites by hot-roll bonding (HRB). The influence of rolling reduction on the microstructure, texture and tensile properties was studied. An inhomogeneity of microstructure through the thickness of Al layer was observed after the HRB process. The grains at the surface Al layer were tilted to 19 deg with respect to the rolling direction after 34.8 pct reduction, and the tilted grains were developed to a deeper region with increasing rolling reduction. The degree of grain-subdivision and number of high-angle boundaries decreased as the observed area moved from the surface to the interface. The cube texture at the surface of the Al layer transformed into the rotated-cube shear texture during HRB process. The strength of the rotated-cube texture at the interface layer was lower than at the surface layer. The initial random texture in the Al-TiC layer was changed to the α-fiber and β-fiber rolling textures after the HRB process. The yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of the sandwich composites increased with increasing rolling reduction, and the sandwich composites showed a high elongation with 43.0 pct reduction.