Composites Science and Technology 62 (2002) 275–282

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Ductility and strength of extruded SiCp/aluminium-alloy composites

Ümit Cöcen, Kazim Önel*
.
Dokuz Eylül University, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, 35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey

Received 5 June 2001; received in revised form 20 September 2001; accepted 8 November 2001

Abstract
The effect of hot extrusion on the strength and ductility of particulate silicon-carbide-reinforced aluminium alloy (Al–5% Si–
0.2% Mg) composites has been studied. Cast ingots of the matrix alloy and the composites were extruded at 500  C at an extrusion
ratio of 10:1. The microstructures and mechanical properties of the composite samples and the matrix alloy have been investigated
in the as-cast state and after extrusion, and are compared with the mechanical properties of hot-forged composites of the same
composition. The extruded microstructures have a more uniform distribution of the SiC particles and the eutectic silicon by com-
parison with as-cast microstructures. Evaluation of the mechanical properties show that the extruded samples have strength and
ductility values superior to those of the as-cast counterparts. In the extruded samples the addition of increasing amounts of parti-
culate SiC increases the yield and tensile strength and decreases the ductility. The ductility level of the extruded samples is found to
be higher than those of the forged and as cast samples. # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: A. Particle-reinforced composites; B. Mechanical properties; E. Extrusion

1. Introduction these materials limits their performance and applications

For some applications composite materials are con-
sidered to be more suitable than conventional materials
as they have favourable mechanical, thermal and fric-
tional properties. Composites containing discontinuous
reinforcement, especially particulate metal-matrix com-
posites, have found commercial use in some applications
[1–3] since they can be produced economically by con-
ventional processing techniques. Among these materials
aluminium-alloy-based composites are very attractive on
account of their processing flexibility, wide range, low
density, high wear resistance, high thermal conductivity,
heat-treatment capability and improved elastic modulus
and strength. Various methods have been developed for
the production of metal–matrix composites. An eco-
nomical way of producing metal–matrix composites is
the incorporation of the particles into the liquid metal
and casting. In as-cast aluminium-alloy-based compo-
sites, a moderate improvement in strength over the
unreinforced alloys is obtained. On the other hand when
the particulate reinforcement is added to improve stiff-
ness, strength and tribological properties, a substantial
decrease in ductility is observed. Inferior ductility of
[4]. The ductility is affected by various factors such as the
matrix microstructure, heterogeneous reinforcement dis-
tribution [5,6], porosity content and the strength of the
interfacial bond between the matrix and the reinforce-
ment. It has been shown that some improvement in duc-
tility as well as the strength is observed by applying
pressure during solidification [7], by optimising the heat
treatment parameters of the matrix [8] and with the
application of plastic forming processes to the composites
[9–14]. Forming processes alter the structural parameters,
which influence the properties of these materials [15], as
these parameters are sensitive to the type of reinforce-
ment, the method of production and fabrication pro-
cessing of composite after the initial production stage.
In the present work Al–5% Si–0.2% Mg alloy based
particulate SiC reinforced composites were produced
under ordinary foundry conditions and then hot extru-
ded. The role of the reinforcement volume fraction and
hot-extrusion process on the strength and ductility of
the produced composites was investigated.
2. Experimental methods

* Corresponding author. Fax: +90-232-3882880. The materials used in the work were the matrix alloy
E-mail address: kazim.onel@deu.edu.tr (K. Önel). Al–5% Si–0.2 %Mg (AlSi5), and the composites
0266-3538/02/$ - see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0266-3538(01)00198-1
276 U. Cöcen, K. Önel / Composites Science and Technology 62 (2002) 275–282
reinforced with 9, 13, 17, 22 and 26 vol.% particulate
silicon carbide (SiCp). The reinforcement was of the
abrasive grade in the size range from 15 to 30 mm. Che-
mical composition of the materials can be found else-
where [14]. The matrix alloy and the composite samples
were prepared in an induction furnace under an argon
gas protective atmosphere by melt stirring technique as
described earlier [16]. The melt was cast into a perma-
nent iron die, to obtain ingots of 35 mm diameter and
70 mm height after the feeder head was removed. The
cylindrical ingots were machined down to 30 mm dia-
meter, and then hot extruded to give rods of 10 mm
diameter and about 600 mm length. The forming pro-
cess was performed at 500  C to yield an extrusion ratio
of 10:1. During the extrusion process the punch speed
was 0.01 m/s and a graphite based high temperature
lubricant was used. For the metallographic examina-
tion, the specimens of all the materials were prepared by
employing standard mechanical polishing techniques
and etched with Keller’s reagent. The microstructures
were observed by means of optical and scanning elec-
tron microscopy. The reinforcement volume fraction of
the composites was calculated from chemical analysis
data and was also determined by the aerial analysis of
the microstructures. The porosity content of the samples
was evaluated from the difference between the calcu-
lated and experimentally observed density of each sam-
ple. The calculated densities of the samples were
determined from the chemical analysis. Tensile tests
were carried out to evaluate the mechanical properties
of the produced composites, and to find out the effects
of the reinforcement content and hot-extrusion process
on the strength and ductility. The tests were performed
on an Instron universal tensile testing unit at ambient
temperature, using flat specimens of 26 mm gauge length
and 7mm3 mm cross section and cylindrical specimens
with a diameter of 6 mm and a gauge length of 35 mm.
The applied strain rate was 3.210 4 s 1 and the stan-
dard procedures were used to evaluate the results.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Microstructures
The examination of the composite microstructures
has generally shown that the particles of SiCp are evenly
distributed in the matrix, but some regional clusters of
smaller particles exist in the as-cast samples. In high
reinforcement containing composites some pores are
resolvable with a light microscope. The observations in
microstructures have shown that the number of resol-
vable pores is reduced, some particle fragmentation is
noticeable and some particle orientation into the direc-
tion of extrusion has taken place with the application of
the hot-extrusion process. In contrast to the observa-
tions in the forged composites [14], no decohesion of
SiC particles was noticeable after the extrusion process
and fragmented particles were well covered by the
matrix. The microstructures of the extruded materials
possess a reduced number of the particles of eutectic Si
and other phases, indicating that particle coarsening has
occurred to a certain extent. Although the holding time
during annealing processes is short the accelerated
coarsening of these phases are expected during anneal-
ing and hot working. After the application of the hot-
extrusion process relatively uniform SiCp distributions
were observed in the composite samples. The difference
between the as-cast and the hot-extruded composite
microstructures is that, the SiCp clusters initially present
in some areas in the as-cast composites have dis-
appeared giving a more uniform distribution of SiCp,
and in addition some particle orientation has taken
place. A typical microstructure of the composites in the
extruded state is shown in Fig. 1.
The density measurements were carried out to deter-
mine the porosity level of the samples. The porosity
values of the composites in the as-cast state and after
the extrusion are presented in Table 1. The effect of the
extrusion process on the observed porosity of the com-
posite samples is illustrated in Fig. 2 as a function of the
reinforcement content. As seen in Fig. 2, the as-cast
samples possess a higher level of porosity than the
extruded ones and the application of the hot-extrusion
process results in approximately 50% reduction in por-
osity volume fraction.
Besides the shrinkage porosity, the melt processed
particulate composites contain porosity that enters the
melt along with the reinforcement during stir mixing. In
the present study, porosity volume fractions in the
matrix alloy and the composites were found to vary
between 0.18 vol.% for the matrix alloy and 4.6 vol.%
for AlSi5/SiC/26p composite in the as-cast condition.
After applying the extrusion process the porosity levels
were found to be 0.11 for the matrix alloy and 2.16 for
Fig. 1. The microstructure of the composite AlSi5/SiC/22p in the as-
extruded condition.
 U. Cöcen, K. Önel / Composites Science and Technology 62 (2002) 275–282 277

Table 1
The densities and porosity content of the matrix alloy and the composites in the as-cast and extruded states

Material Calculated density Dc, (g/cm3) Experimental density De, (g/cm3) Porosity (%)

As-cast Extruded As-cast Extruded

Matrix 2.712 2.706 2.708 0.18 0.11

AlSi5/SiC/9p 2.754 2.727 2.736 1.0 0.65
AlSi5/SiC/13p 2.775 2.719 2.752 2.8 0.8
AlSi5/SiC/17p 2.797 2.75 2.771 1.6 0.93
AlSi5/SiC/22p 2.819 2.685 2.751 4.7 2.4
AlSi5/SiC/26p 2.82 2.69 2.759 4.6 2.16

Table 2
The results of tensile tests applied to the unreinforced alloy and the
composite samples in the as cast and extruded conditions

Material
0.2 (MPa)
UTS (MPa) %"

Cast Extr. Cast Extr. Cast Forg.a Extr.b

Matrix 42 45 151 137 3.4 18 23.8

AlSi5/SiC/9p 43 54 142 161 3.4 15 14.3
AlSi5/SiC/13p 49 88 148 215 2 11 9.5
AlSi5/SiC/17p 58 68 112 170 1 4.9 11.7
AlSi5/SiC/22p – 78 – 172 – 4 11
AlSi5/SiC/26p 44 81 67 192 0.7 5.4
a
Forg.: Forged specimens [14].
b
Extr.: Extruded specimens.

Fig. 2. The change of the porosity content of the matrix alloy and the
composites in the extruded and as-cast conditions as a function of
SiCp volume fraction.
the composite AlSi5/SiC/26p. As shown by Rozak et al.
[9], in A356 alloy based SiCp reinforced composites,
plastic working can reduce the porosity which can be
eliminated if the amount of the applied deformation is
over 90%. Özdemir et al. [14] studied the effect of the
hot-forging process on the microstructures and
mechanical properties of the SiCp reinforced Al–Si alloy
based composites with the same compositions as those
used in the present work. It was shown that the porosity
level of the composites could be reduced to below 1.5
wt.% by applying the hot-forging process. This is a
lower value than obtained after the extrusion process of
the present work.
3.2. Strength
The results of the tensile tests are given in Table 2
which shows the yield strength (
0.2, 0.2% proof stress),
tensile strength (
UTS, the ultimate tensile strength), and
elongation to fracture (%") of the base alloy and the
composites in the extruded and in the as-cast condi-
tions. In order to make a comparison, the tensile elon-
gation values of the forged composites [14] are also
included in Table 2.
The change in yield strength of the as-cast and extru-
ded specimens is given as a function of the SiCp volume
fraction in Fig. 3. The curves indicate that in the as-cast
specimens the yield strength increases with the volume
fraction of reinforcement up to 17 vol.%, showing an
increase of about 50%, but starts decreasing in the spe-
cimens containing over 17 vol.% SiCp. In the case of
extruded samples, the yield strength increases steadily
with the SiCp volume fraction, and an improvement of
up to 100% in yield strength of the composite samples is
obtained with the application of the hot-extrusion pro-
cess. In contrast to the as-cast specimens the extruded
samples show a continuous increase in yield strength
with increasing reinforcement content.
The effect of reinforcement content and hot extrusion
process on the tensile strength of the composites is
shown in Fig. 4. In the as-cast samples, it is apparent
that the tensile strength starts decreasing with the addi-
tion of reinforcement. In the extruded samples, the ten-
sile strength increases continuously with the additions of
reinforcing SiC particles. Although there is not much
difference in the strength values of extruded and as cast
specimens of the matrix and the composite with 9 vol.%
SiCp, the difference in the strength of the as-cast speci-
mens and extruded specimens becomes larger as the
volume fraction of the reinforcement increases. An
overall increase of about 40% in tensile strength is
obtained after extrusion. The effect of reinforcement
278 U. Cöcen, K. Önel / Composites Science and Technology 62 (2002) 275–282
Fig. 3. The effect of the extrusion process on the yield strength of the
matrix alloy and the composites as a function of the reinforcement
content.
Fig. 4. The effect of SiCp content and the extrusion process on the
tensile strength of the composites and the matrix alloy.
content on tensile strength is similar to that observed
for the yield strength thus the tensile strength of the
extruded specimens increases continuously with the
volume fraction of SiCp.
The effect of SiC whisker and particle reinforcement
on the strength of discontinuously reinforced Al alloy
matrices was extensively studied by McDanels [17]. He
observed a substantial increase in yield and ultimate
tensile strengths, with the increasing volume fraction of
reinforcement, depending on the type of alloy and the
matrix alloy temper. It was also reported by Lloyd [1]
that increasing the SiC content increases the yield
strength of the composites. Some of the reported results
do not agree with the above observations. As reported
in the work by Davidson [18] where the yield strength of
the 2014 aluminium alloy matrix composite with 15
vol.% SiC (345 MPa) was found to be lower than that
of the base alloy (415 MPa), and by Manoharan and
Lewandowski [19], who reported a similar observation.
The discrepancies obtained in mechanical properties
may be attributed to the differences in microstructures
due to the method of processing and the quality of the
material.
In the composites of the present work, the effect of
SiCp volume fraction on the strength was different in
samples obtained using different processes. As indicated
by the tensile test results given in Table 2, in the as-cast
samples the addition of particulate SiC into Al alloy
matrix increases the yield strength up to an optimal rein-
forcement volume fraction, above that the yield strength
is decreased (Fig. 3). The optimum volume fraction
appears to be about 17 vol.%. On the other hand, in the
extruded samples, the strength increases continuously
with increasing SiCp content. The behaviour of the
extruded composites is not in agreement with the pre-
vious observations by Özdemir et al. [14] in the as-
forged composite specimens of corresponding composi-
tions. In their work they found that, the application of
hot forging process gave rise to a substantial increase in
yield strength, which reached a maximum value in the
specimens with 13–17 vol.% SiCp, and then decreased
slightly with further additions of reinforcement. A simi-
lar observation was reported by Tan et al. [20], who
investigated the behaviour of powder processed and
extruded Al–Li alloy based SiCp reinforced composites
and found that the addition of over 20 wt.% reinforce-
ment caused a substantial decrease in yield strength and
ductility. In addition, Davies et al. [21] reported that in
advanced 7000 series Al alloy based SiCp reinforced
composites, the yield strength and tensile strength
values exhibited an increase with the addition of up to
10 and 20 vol.% SiCp, in the peak aged condition and in
the overaged condition, respectively. After the addition
of reinforcement exceeding these volume fraction
values, the yield strength and tensile strength started
decreasing significantly. The decrease in the strength of
these composites after the addition of SiCp over an
optimal volume fraction value could be explained by the
early void formation at the reinforcing particles. Thus,
higher volume fraction of the reinforcement giving
smaller interparticle spacing will make relaxation more
difficult, and the build up of dislocations leading void
formation at reinforcing particles would occur at lower
strains, as a result the proof stress and the strain to
failure are reduced.
In interpreting the decreased strength of high SiCp
containing composites, the interfacial reactions should
also be considered. These reactions take place during the
incorporation process and may alter the matrix compo-
sition, as a result the strength of the particulate contain-
ing composites is affected. Zhong et al. [22] have reported
that in Al–Mg (5083) alloy based SiCp reinforced com-
posites the addition of the oxidised SiCp decreases the
strength as a result of some interfacial reactions in which
MgO layers form at the particle–matrix interfaces at the
 U. Cöcen, K. Önel / Composites Science and Technology 62 (2002) 275–282
expense of Mg in matrix. The depletion of Mg in the
matrix will induce lower strength values due to reduced
solute strengthening. In the high SiCp containing com-
posites higher amounts of Mg depletion will take place
and as a result even lower strength levels will be
observed. For the case of composite samples of the
present study, oxidised SiCp was used as reinforcement.
Some formation of Mg containing interfacial oxides was
observed in the microstructures but the age hard-
enability of the high reinforcement containing samples
was not greatly altered [16], and in addition, no reduc-
tion in the strength of the extruded samples of high
reinforcement composites was obtained with increasing
SiCp content. Therefore, the decrease in strength of the
as-cast high SiCp containing composites can not be
explained by the depletion of Mg in the matrix. This
decrease in strength may partly be attributed to the
formation of Mg containing compounds at the inter-
faces, giving rise to reduced cohesion between the rein-
forcing particles and the matrix. In addition, the
possible formation of flaws in SiC particles during oxi-
dation may induce early void formation, and lower
values of strength could be observed in the as-cast sam-
ples due to the reduced load transfer to the particles
[22]. The particles with flaws may crack and separate
during extrusion and may have no deteriorating effect
on the strength of the extruded samples.
It is known that the forming process applied to the
metal–matrix composites affects the microstructure and
mechanical properties. The effects of such processes
were outlined by McKimpson and Scott [10]. They sta-
ted that achieving a uniform reinforcement distribution
should improve the strength and ductility of the parti-
culate containing composites. It was demonstrated by
Harrigen et al. [11] that the application of hot rolling
process of at least 80% reduction to the billets of SiCp
reinforced 6061 alloys improved the particulate dis-
tribution and increased the strength and ductility of
these composites. The effect of hot forging on the
properties of the sand cast and squeeze cast A356 alloy
based 20 vol.% SiCp reinforced composites was studied
by Rozak et al. [9] who applied hot reductions of up to
95% to both unreinforced and reinforced materials.
After the application of forging they obtained a sub-
stantial improvement in the strength and ductility of
both group of materials. The improvement in proper-
ties, being more pronounced in the sand cast composites
which possessed coarse microstructures and higher por-
osity content, was related to the refinement of the
microstructures, and to the reduction of porosity con-
tent with the increased amount of deformation. Özde-
mir et al. [14] obtained a substantial increase in the yield
and tensile strength, and in the ductility of the die cast
composite samples after the application of hot hot-for-
ging process. The observed improvement in strength
and ductility was explained by the reduction in porosity
279
content and by the changes in microstructure caused by
forging process. In the as-cast composite samples of the
present work, the beneficial effect of SiCp addition, up to
an optimal volume fraction, on the strength could be
explained by the reduction of mean free path with increas-
ing SiCp volume fraction, and also with the increased den-
sity of dislocations generated as a result of the difference in
thermal expansion coefficients of the matrix and reinfor-
cement. With the application of extrusion process a mod-
erate improvement in yield strength, and especially in the
high reinforcement containing samples, a substantial
increase in tensile strength was observed. It should be
noted that the yield and tensile strength of the extruded
samples increases continuously with the increased volume
fraction of reinforcement (Figs. 3 and 4). These improving
effects in strength can be explained by the changes
observed in microstructures induced by the extrusion pro-
cess. In the extruded microstructures the reinforcing parti-
cles and eutectic silicon particles are more homogeneously
distributed in the matrix in comparison to the as-cast
microstructures. As well as the particle distribution, the
porosity content was also affected by the extrusion process,
after which the maximum porosity content observed in
AlSi5/SiC/22p was reduced to 2.4% from about 5% in the
as-cast condition. The porosity in the as-cast composites
increases with increasing reinforcement volume fraction
and the increase becomes steeper after adding SiCp above
17 vol.%. This steep increase of porosity may also be
responsible for the observed decrease in yield and tensile
strength of the as cast composites containing above 17
vol.% SiCp. As shown in Fig. 2 after the extrusion process,
the porosity curve shows only a slight increase with the
reinforcement content even in the samples containing over
17 vol.% SiCp. Therefore, the increase in strength of the
extruded composites may partly be attributed to the
reduced porosity content.
When the mechanical properties of the extruded sam-
ples are compared with those of the forged composites
of the same composition [14], a difference in behaviour is
to be noted. This difference is that in the extruded com-
posites the strength increases continuously with the
increased amount of SiCp addition, on the other hand, in
the forged composites the strength increases with the
addition of reinforcement up to an optimal volume frac-
tion, after which it starts decreasing. The decrease in
strength of the forged high reinforcement composites
was explained by the observed particle cracking and
debonding along with the early void formation due to
high SiCp volume fraction. The microstructural obser-
vations in the forged samples indicate that the forming
process causes particle cracking and debonding. In con-
trast to the forged samples, the microstructural studies of
the extruded composites show that although some par-
ticle fragmentation has taken place, the occurrence of
interfacial damage is less frequent. In addition, the
examination of tensile fracture surfaces of the extruded
280 U. Cöcen, K. Önel / Composites Science and Technology 62 (2002) 275–282
composites indicates that the process affects the parti-
cle–matrix interfacial bond. The SEM micrograph in
Fig. 5 shows dimples in the matrix and fractured rein-
forcement particles. In the interfaces between the matrix
and particles no interfacial decohesion is noticeable, and
there are no cavities left by any removed large SiC par-
ticles. These observations suggest that the hot-extrusion
process may also have beneficial effects on the inter-
facial bond, it may improve the bond by affecting the
interfacial compounds and by covering metal over the
surfaces of reinforcing particles.
In the deformed composites, the number of the
cracked reinforcement particles is reported to be pro-
portional to the extent of the applied plastic deformation
[36,37]. In this case the degree of particle fragmentation
is assumed to be higher in the extruded composites of this
work than in the forged ones of Özdemir et al. [14]. In
agreement with this assumption, the measured mean SiC
particle size of AlSi5–SiC/20p is 26.5 mm after forging,
and 24.7 mm after the extrusion process. The composite
with a smaller reinforcement size for a given volume
fraction is expected to have higher strength [38,39].
Therefore, the absence of decrease in the strength of the
extruded high reinforcement composites could partly be
attributed to the reduction of reinforcement particle
size. As well as the particle size, other factors such as the
improvement of particle–matrix interfacial bond and
the absence of particle debonding in microstructures
contribute to the improved strength of the hot extruded
composite samples of the present work.
3.3. Ductility
As has been reviewed by Lloyd [1], the tensile elon-
gation decreases with the addition of reinforcing parti-
cles. It has been demonstrated that the failure of
Fig. 5. SEM micrograph of tensile fracture surface of the composite
AlSi5/SiC/17p.
composite materials is related to particle cracking and
void formation in the matrix within clusters of smaller
particles. Particle fracture is expected in larger particles
as they will be loaded to higher levels and are more
likely to contain defects of critical size for initiating
fracture. The failure related to the particle clusters can
be explained by higher stress triaxiality generated in
these regions. Attempts have been made to understand
the fracture in composites quantitatively [23,24] and it
was concluded that the fracture of composites was
affected by particle size and shape, particle distribution
uniformity, interfacial strength and matrix ductility.
Although the factors affecting composite failure renders
it a complex process the experimental work has shown
that the composite fracture is directly related to the
cracking of large particles and interfacial failure [24–34].
The ductility values of the composites of the present
work are given in Table 2 as percentage elongation to
fracture. The curves in Fig. 6 show that the increase in
reinforcement content decreases the percentage elonga-
tion to fracture in all of the samples. The level of ducti-
lity is very low and below 5% in the as-cast materials. In
Fig. 7 the observed ductility values are plotted against
the tensile strength of the specimens. The results given
in Figs. 6 and 7 show that the application of the hot-
extrusion process improves the ductility of the compo-
sites considerably, resulting in ductility levels five to ten
times those of the as-cast samples. It should be noted
that after the application of the hot-extrusion process
even in the composites with over 17 vol.% SiCp, the per-
centage elongation keeps above 10%, which is a reason-
able level, only the specimen with 26 vol.% SiCp shows
elongation below 10%. In the present work the observed
low ductility in the as-cast samples can be explained by
the heterogeneity in particle distribution and mainly by
high porosity content, therefore, a decrease in ductility is
expected with the increasing amount of reinforcement.
Fig. 6. The change of elongation to fracture as a function of the rein-
forcement content, and the effect of extrusion on ductility.
 U. Cöcen, K. Önel / Composites Science and Technology 62 (2002) 275–282
Fig. 7. The relationship between tensile strength and ductility for the
as-cast, forged [14] and extruded materials.
As already discussed in the preceding section, in the
high reinforcement containing composites a low level of
ductility is unavoidable due to the high porosity content
and early void formation at low strains during tensile
elongation. It is possible to obtain an improvement in
ductility by altering some microstructural features such
as the matrix microstructure and the porosity content.
The bond between the reinforcing particles and the
matrix is also important in improving the ductility of
particulate reinforced composites. The experimental
work has shown that the processing conditions affect
the ductility of composites. Application of pressure
during processing improves the ductility [7,9–12]. This
improvement in ductility is explained by the decrease in
porosity content, the improvement of particle–matrix
bond and by the refinement of the matrix structure.
Results of the work by Özdemir et al. [14], on the effect
of forging on mechanical properties of Al–SiCp com-
posites, are in agreement with the past findings and
show that a substantial increase in ductility was
observed with the application of hot forging which
reduced the porosity content and homogenised the par-
ticulate distribution. But in the case of composites with
over 17 vol.% SiCp, the ductility values were still below
5% after the application of hot forging process (Figs. 6
and 7). As can be noticed, the extruded high reinforce-
ment samples exhibit better ductility levels than the
forged composites of the same compositions for a given
tensile strength level. It should be noted that the
strength levels of the forged high reinforcement compo-
sites are almost in the same range as those of the extru-
ded samples of the present work.
The yield strength is in the 70–80 MPa range, and the
tensile strength is in the 140–160 MPa range after two
step forging. In the case of the extruded samples, the
yield strength is in the 70–82 MPa range, and the tensile
strength in the 170–190 MPa range with a slight
improvement over that of the forged samples.
It was demonstrated by Molliex et al. [35], that the
mechanical forces associated with mechanical working
281
such as forging not only cause redistribution of the
reinforcements, but also cause microscopic damage,
such as particulate cracking and interfacial debonding,
affecting the material properties of the resultant com-
posite. As the cracking and interfacial debonding of
particles cause early void formation during tensile test-
ing, the lower ductility of the forged high reinforcement
composites can be explained by the observed particle
cracking and some interfacial debonding in micro-
structures. On the other hand, the improved ductility of
the extruded high reinforcement composite samples can
be attributed to the reduction in reinforcement particle
size, the absence of particle decohesion, and the
improvement of the particle–matrix interfacial bond
during the extrusion process.
4. Conclusions
Particulate SiC reinforced AlSi5 based composites are
produced under ordinary foundry conditions, and the
cast ingots are hot extruded to improve mechanical
properties. The microstructures and mechanical prop-
erties are studied in the as-cast state and after the
extrusion process. The strength and ductility of the as-
cast and extruded composites are related to the micro-
structures and to the volume fraction of reinforcement.
The results are compared with the properties of the
forged specimens of the corresponding compositions.
After the evaluation of experimental observations the
following points are concluded.
1. The microstructures of the as cast composites exhi-
bit fairly uniform distribution of SiCp with some regio-
nal clusters of smaller SiC particles, and contain some
porosity. With the application of extrusion the clusters
of SiCp disappear and the porosity content is sub-
stantially reduced to very low levels.
2. The yield strength and tensile strength of the com-
posites increase with the volume fraction SiCp up to 17
vol.% and then decrease with further additions of rein-
forcement. With the application of extrusion, the yield
strength and the tensile strength values are improved by
approximately 40%. In the extruded samples the yield
and tensile strength increases continuously with the
volume fraction of reinforcement.
3. The ductility of the composites is decreased with the
increasing amounts of SiCp. With the application of
extrusion a substantial improvement in ductility is
obtained. The elongation to fracture of the composites
with up to 22 vol.% SiCp are observed to be above 10%.
4. The extruded samples of high reinforcement com-
posites exhibited better ductility levels than the forged
samples and this observation is explained by the reduc-
tion in reinforcement particle size, the absence of parti-
cle decohesion, and the improvement of particle–matrix
interfacial bond during extrusion process.
282 U. Cöcen, K. Önel / Composites Science and Technology 62 (2002) 275–282
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Institute of
Natural Sciences and the research foundation of Dokuz
Eylül University for financial support.
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