Synthesis and Characterization of Magnesium Based Composites Containing Metallic Particulates as Reinforcement

Abstract

Elemental and metallic particulates reinforced magnesium materials were fabricated using an innovative Disintegrated Melt Deposition technique followed by hot extrusion. Elemental copper, nickel and titanium of ∼2 volume percentage were used as reinforcement. Microstructural characterization of the materials revealed retention and uniform distribution of reinforcement with defect free strong continuous interface with the matrix. Tensile behavior characterization revealed that the presence of copper and nickel as reinforcement led to significant increase in 0.2% YS and UTS of pure magnesium with adverse effect on ductility and titanium as reinforcement lead to an improvement in 0.2% YS and ductility while the UTS was adversely affected. The results revealed that the combined tensile properties of these materials are superior when compared to high strength magnesium alloy AZ91 reinforced with much higher weight percentage of SiC. An attempt is made in the present study to correlate the effect of metallic particulates as reinforcement with the microstructural and tensile properties of magnesium.