Abstract
Metallic glass-reinforced metal matrix composites are an emerging class of composite materials. The metallic nature and the high mechanical strength of the reinforcing phase offers unique possibilities for improving the engineering performance of composites. Understanding the structure at the amorphous/crystalline interfaces and the deformation behavior of these composites is of vital importance for their further development and potential application. In the present work, Zr-based metallic glass fibers have been introduced in Al7075 alloy (Al-Zn-Mg-Cu) matrices using spark plasma sintering (SPS) producing composites with low porosity. The addition of metallic glass reinforcements in the Al-based matrix significantly improves the mechanical behavior of the composites in compression. High-resolution TEM observations at the interface reveal the formation of a thin interdiffusion layer able to provide good bonding between the reinforcing phase and the Al-based matrix. The deformation behavior of the composites was studied, indicating that local plastic deformation occurred in the matrix near the glassy reinforcements followed by the initiation and propagation of cracks mainly through the matrix. The reinforcing phase is seen to inhibit the plastic deformation and retard the crack propagation. The findings offer new insights into the mechanical behavior of metal matrix composites reinforced with metallic glasses.
Highlights
Metallic glass-reinforced metal matrix composites (MMCs) are still in their early development stage, the progress in the field has been recently reviewed by Dudina et al.[19] and Jayalakshmi et al.[20]
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of the composite powder shows Bragg peaks corresponding to a fcc-Al solid solution and a broad diffraction maximum corresponding to the amorphous phase, suggesting that no crystallization of the glassy fibers occurred during milling
The peaks corresponding to the MgZn2 phase could not be discerned in the XRD pattern of the composite powder suggesting that the precipitates dissolved into the Al-based matrix during milling
Summary
Metallic glass-reinforced MMCs are still in their early development stage, the progress in the field has been recently reviewed by Dudina et al.[19] and Jayalakshmi et al.[20]. SPS is a well-developed rapid sintering technique with great potential for efficient consolidation of fine-grained crystalline materials[21,22,23,24] and producing bulk specimens from amorphous alloy powders within short sintering times suppressing or limiting crystallization events[25,26,27]. The consolidation behavior of the composite powders during SPS depends on a set of parameters that, among others, include particle morphology, strength and applied pressure. We use the SPS technique to fabricate metallic glass fiber-reinforced metal matrix composites composed of an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy (Al7075) matrix and a dispersion of Zr-based gas atomized metallic glass fibers (15 vol.%) that include nano-wires, micro-wires and micron size particles. The resulting microstructures and the mechanical behavior in compression have been analyzed
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