Abstract
SiC particle reinforced aluminum alloy has a wide application in the aerospace industries. In this study, laser shock peening (LSP), an advanced surface modification technique, was employed for SiCp/2009Al composite to reveal its microstructure, microhardness and residual stress evolution. After peening, high densities of dislocations were induced in the aluminum substrate, and stacking faults were introduced into the SiC particle. The microhardness was increased from 155–170 HV to 170–185 HV, with an affected depth of more than 1.5 mm. Compressive residual stresses of more than 200 MPa were introduced. The three-point bending fatigue of the base material, laser peened and milled after laser peened specimens with artificial crack notch fabricated by a femtosecond laser was investigated. The average fatigue lives of laser peened and milled after laser peened specimens were increased by up to 10.60 and 2.66 times, compared with the base material. This combined fundamental and application-based research seeks to comprehensively explore the applicability of LSP on metal matrix composite.
Highlights
SiC particle reinforced aluminum is a typical discontinuously reinforced metal matrix composite, which has significant applications in manufacturing components and parts for aerostructures, such as ventral fins (SiC/6092Al/17.5p, SiC particle reinforced 6092 aluminium alloy with a particle volume fraction of 17.5%), panel supports (SiC/6061Al/25p) and helicopter blade sleeves (SiC/2009Al/15p) [1], due to their excellent balance of specific strength and stiffness, as well as the urgent demand for weight savings [2,3,4]. These metal matrix composite manufactured aerostructures are frequently subjected to severe mechanical loads, thermal stresses and cyclic vibration during operation [5], which are likely to cause a great reduction in their fatigue life and seriously affect their use reliability
The ultra-thin base material (BM) and TLSPed chips for transmissionelectron electron microscope (TEM) observation were both prepared by focused ion beam milling, as the conventional
Ture, (d) inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) image taken from the square (d) showing the enlarged view of uniform atom layer image taken from the square (d) showing the enlarged view of uniform atom layer in the aluminum in the aluminum substrate and (e) IFFT image taken from the square (e) showing stacking faults substrate
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. SiC particle reinforced aluminum is a typical discontinuously reinforced metal matrix composite, which has significant applications in manufacturing components and parts for aerostructures, such as ventral fins (SiC/6092Al/17.5p, SiC particle reinforced 6092 aluminium alloy with a particle volume fraction of 17.5%), panel supports (SiC/6061Al/25p) and helicopter blade sleeves (SiC/2009Al/15p) [1], due to their excellent balance of specific strength and stiffness, as well as the urgent demand for weight savings [2,3,4]. This work seeks to gain a comprehensive understanding of the surface modification of metal matrix composite and aims to explore the applicability of LSP on composites
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