Effect of asymmetric rolling on microstructure and mechanical properties of aluminum matrix composites

Abstract

The lightweight of structural materials was an important research focus for reduced energy consumption and transport efficiency. Aluminium matrix composites (AMCs) had the advantages of high specific strength and good wear resistance, so they were widely used in automobile, aerospace and other fields. At present, the deformation mechanism of AMCs reinforced by high-entropy alloy particles (HEAp) in asymmetric rolling was not clear. In this work, AMCs ingot reinforced with 6 wt% HEAp was prepared by stir casting process. Then the mechanical properties of HEAp/AMCs under different rolling processes were studied by asymmetric rolling (AR) and asymmetric cryorolling (ACR) processes. High-entropy alloy (HEA) had excellent strength and toughness, which imparted good deformation ability when added to AMCs as reinforcement. The microstructure of AMCs reinforced by HEAp was refined by ACR. At the same time, the HEAp/AMCs obtained by ACR displayed a higher ultimate tensile strength (UTS) than that obtained by AR. The study of ACR shows that AMCs reinforced with HEAp have good toughness. ACR can reduce the thickness of HEAp/AMCs to a greater extent so as to produce AMCs strip with excellent mechanical properties.