Structural and morphological evaluation of Al-5 vol.%SiC nanocomposite powder produced by mechanical milling

摘要

Al-5 vol.%SiC nanocomposite powder is produced by using attrition milling in this investigation. The particle size distribution has been determined based on the standard deviation and the coefficient of variation. The results show that the addition of hard SiC particles accelerates the milling process, leading to faster work hardening rate and fracture of the aluminum matrix. Furthermore, Al becomes smaller crystallite size during ball milling of Al powder in the presence of SiC particles. Finally, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis and the X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments are used to investigate the effect of milling time on the structural changes of Al-5 vol.%SiC nanocomposite and pure aluminum powder.