Improving compressive failure strain and work of fracture of magnesium by integrating it with millimeter length scale aluminum

Abstract

Solidification processing followed by hot coextrusion was used to fabricate a bimetal magnesium/aluminum macrocomposite containing millimeter-scale Al core reinforcement. Microstructural characterization revealed limited interfacial interdiffusion of both metals into each other. Compressive testing revealed that the presence of Al core does not affect 0.2%YS, marginally decreases ultimate compressive strength (UCS), and significantly increases failure strain (115%) and work of fracture (55%) of Mg. The effect of the presence of mm-scale Al core on the compressive properties of the bimetal macrocomposite is investigated in this article. © SAGE Publications 2008.