Mechanical behavior and failure micromechanisms of Al/Al2O3 composites under cyclic deformation

Abstract

The mechanical behavior under fully reversed cyclic deformation was determined through the incremental step method for two Al alloys reinforced with 15 vol pct A12O3 particulates in the naturally aged and peak-aged conditions. The composites exhibited cyclic strain hardening in all cases, but the hardening was more pronounced in the naturally aged condition. This behavior was reflected by the stress-strain curves in monotonie tension and in fatigue, and the cyclic strain-hardening coefficient was about twice the monotonie one for both materials and tempers. The tensile and cyclic strengths of the materials were very similar, and the dominant failure mechanism under both loading conditions was paniculate fracture, which was very localized around the fracture region in fatigue, but was spread along the specimen length in monotonie tension. In addition, a few A12O3 particulates were broken in compression during cyclic deformation. The final fracture micromechanism was the growth and coalescence of voids in the matrix from broken ceramic particulates. This last stage in the fracture process was fast and started when a critical volume fraction of broken reinforcements (between 30 and 45 pct) was reached in a given section of the specimen.