Strengthening behavior in SiC nanowires reinforced pure Al composite

Recently, it has been found that SiC nanowires have significant strengthening effect on Al matrix. The shear-lag model was used to explain the strengthening behavior after considering the aspect ratio of reinforcement in the previous work. However, the effect of alloying elements has not been considered yet. Moreover, the significant strengthening effect of SiC nano-particles over micron-scale particles could not been explained by the modified shear-lag model due to their same aspect ratio. Therefore, pure Al matrix composites reinforced with SiC nanowires, which could minimize the strengthening effect of the alloying elements, were selected to explore in this work. SiCnw/pure Al composites with different fractions (15, 20 and 25 vol%) have been prepared by pressure infiltration method. The yield strength was improved with the increased content of SiC nanowires. Based on the previous work, the modified shear-lag model has been further developed after considering the surface-to-volume ratio of the reinforcement. It has been taken into account that initially the effective atoms participated into the interfacial load transferring, and eventually the strengthening behavior of Al composites reinforced with SiC-type reinforcements was explored. Based on the developed model, the key research fields have also been discussed in order to exploit the strengthening effect of SiC nanowires. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.