Microstructure and Crystallographic Texture of Aluminium Composite

The objective of the present work is to study the hot deformation behaviour of Al alloy-SiC Composites and to analyze the microstructure and crystallographic texture. Dispersing finer size hard particles in Al alloys restricted the flow of grains and tends to alter the texture. Al composites were homogenized and subjected to compression test using universal testing machine at various strain rates and temperatures. The deformed microstructure was studied under microscope paying particular emphasis to understand the mechanism of material flow. The crystallographic texture of the deformed samples was found out using x-ray diffactometer. The results depict that Al composites can safely be deformed at 400 oC and at 0.01 /s strain rate and the microstructure shows dynamic recrystallization as the predominant mechanism of material flow. It was also observed that at higher strain rate (10/s) of deformation, the interface decohesion between the metallic matrix and ceramic phase was observed. Adiabatic shear bands (localized flow) were observed when the materials deformed at room temperature (30 oC) and at strain rate of 0.01/s. The texture measurement of Al composites, at the safe region, shows the components of (011) [100], (001) [1-10], (010) [101]. This study indicated that Goss and cube texture are favorable for the easy deformation of Al composite