Arrangement of ceramic particles in PM composites

摘要

The mechanical properties of the ceramic particles reinforced metal matrix composites are mainly influenced by the amount, size, shape and arrangement of the embedded hard particles. The pair correlation function was selected as a mathematical tool for the quantitative description of particle arrangement. These functions were calculated by developed software using the digital image analysis. Usefulness and applicability range of the mentioned methods were demonstrated on a real microstructure of Al/SiC_p composites. The composite samples for current investigations were produced by a powder metallurgy technique. SiC powders in different amount and particle sizes were added to the aluminum powder. The powder mixtures were compacted by uniaxial cold pressing to the required shape and finally the green samples were sintered in a high purity nitrogen atmosphere. The microstructure of the sintered samples was studied and quantitative relationship between the SiC particle size, amount and type of the developed arrangement was found.