Abstract:
Taken the composites of TiB
2/Al and TiB
2+Mg
2Si/Al Al-matrix as examples in this paper, the in-situ fabrication techniques of Al-matrix composites reinforced with single or hybrid particles and the advantages of hybrid reinforcement are investigated. The salt-metal reaction route and melting process were combined to fabricate 5vol% TiB
2+10% Mg
2Si/Al composites successfully. Microstructure analysis and performance testing were carried out, and the results showed that, the TiB
2 particles can act as good heterogeneous nucleation site for Mg
2Si phase, which leads to the refinement and uniform distribution of Mg
2Si. The Mg
2Si eutectic phase is refined from over 50 μm to under 10 μm. TiB
2 particles gathered along the grain boundary are broken up by Mg
2Si phase, and TiB
2 particles are uniformly distributed. The mutual refinement of TiB
2 particles and Mg
2Si phase is discovered. Compared with TiB
2/Al composite, the yield stress and ultimate tensile strength of TiB
2+Mg
2Si/Al composite are improved by 88% and 45%, respectively.