MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND TEXTURES OF PARTICULATE-RENFORCED ALUMINUM ALLOY MATRIX COMPOSITE UNDER HOT- AND COLD-ROLLING CONDITIONS

A study has been made on the mechanical properties of an aluminum alloy matrix (AI-3.0 wt% Cu-1.5 wt% Mg-0.4 wt% Mn) composites reinforced with a volume fraction of 15% silicon carbide under hot- and cold-rolling conditions. The preferred crystallite orientation distribution functions (ODFs) of these rolled sheets were measured. The tensile test results showed that the ultimate tensile strength and plasticity of the hot-rolled composite sheet are better than those of the cold-rolled one. However, the cold-rolled sheet specimen exhibits much higher 0.2% offset yield strength than that in the case of hot rolling. The cold-rolling texture of this sheet composite is obtained from the development of hot-rolled texture only by a little rotation about the related axes. It consists of random texture and three weak components, {001}<110>, {110}<112> and {3314}<773>, while the hot rolling texture of the metal-matrix composite (MMC) sheet is almost random under the rolling reduction employed. The preferred grain orientation has effect on the yield strength and no much influence on the ultimate tensile strength of the cold rolled sheet. The decrease in the ultimate tensile strength of the cold-rolled specimen is mainly attributed to the micro-damages in the microstructure produced during cold rolling.