New advance in the development of high performance SiC_p/Al composite

The commercial 6061 aluminium alloy was used as the matrix and high-temperature synthesis (SHS) SiC particulates with a mean size of about 3.5μm as the reinforcement. The aluminum matrix composite has successfully been obtained and is superior in mechanical performance to those composites reinforced with the conventional abrasive-grade SiC particulates. The achievement should be attributed to the reduced extent of local stress concentration arising from the near-spherical geometry of SHS SiC particulate without the edges, and the improved interface bind strength in terms of two kinds of bonding mechanisms including the effective mechanical keying role and atom match bonding with an exact crystallographic orientation relationship.