Nanostructured Al–ZrAl3 materials consolidated via spark plasma sintering: Evaluation of their mechanical properties

Abstract

Aluminium based nanostructured materials with additions of 0.5, 1 and 1.5 weight% of zirconium have been produced and sintered using the spark plasma sintering technique in order to promote the nucleation of ZrAl 3 platelets. The mechanical behaviour of all these nanocomposites was determined by means of the Small Punch Test. Zirconium additions significantly decrease the mechanical properties of these products when sintering time at the sintering temperature (650ºC) is short (3 minutes). Nevertheless, when the sintering time increases to 1 hour (intermetallic crystallization), the zirconium additions show the expected effect: the stiffness and the yield strength increase while ductility and toughness decrease.The maximum load increases until a 0.5 weight% Zr is attained and suddenly drops when the Zr content surpasses 1 weight%.

Progress in aluminium and magnesium matrix composites obtained by spark plasma, microwave and induction sintering

“…The sintering time was found to be critical for obtaining materials with improved mechanical strength by reactive SPS. Rodríguez et al [73] produced aluminium matrix composites by adding small amounts of zirconium to aluminium (0.5, 1 and 1.5 wt.%) and sintering the mixtures by SPS. In order to introduce zirconium into aluminium, a colloidal process based on the use of a zirconium alkoxide was applied.…”

Using the small punch test to analyse the influence of ultraviolet radiation on the mechanical behaviour of recycled polyethylene terephthalate

“…Thus, this test allows to obtain the mechanical properties in case that only a small amount of material is available. 7 The SPT has also been used in the mechanical characterization of different types of materials other than steel 8,9 and its applicability in the estimation of the tensile properties of different types of polymers has been proved. [10][11][12][13][14] During the test, the specimens are firmly clamped between two circular dies and are punched into a circular hole by a hemispherical punch until failure.…”

Hot Deformation Behaviour of SiC/AA6061 Composites Prepared by Spark Plasma Sintering

“…Thus, SPS can maintain the nano-and submicron-structures of powder-based materials after consolidation, obtain strong adhesion between the reinforcement and the matrix, and fabricate fully dense materials [11] . To date, SPS has been used to fabricate several AMCs, including SiC/Al [12,13] , CNT/Al [14] , Al 2 O 3 /Al [15] , diamond/Al [16] , ZrB 2 /Al [17] , metallic glass/Al [18] , B 4 C/Al [19] and intermetallic composites/Al [20] .…”