Effect of Post Deformation on the Structure and Properties of Sintered Al-Cu-SiC Composites

Sintered composites of Al-8wt%Cu-10vol%SiCp were deformed by repressing or equal channel angular pressing(ECAP) at room temperature, $500^{\circ}C$ and $600^{\circ}C$. Repressing produced more densification than ECAP but resulted in much lower transverse rupture strengths. In both cases, deformation at room temperature and $500^{\circ}C$, resulted in much lower strengths than deformation at $600^{\circ}C$, and also caused the fracturing of some SiC particles. The higher bend strengths and less SiC fracturing at $600^{\circ}C$ are attributable to the presence of an Al-Cu liquid phase during deformation. The employment of copper coated SiC instead of bare SiC particles for preparing the composites was found not improving the properties.