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Effect of particle size on fatigue behaviour in SiC particulate‐reinforced aluminium alloy composites
Author(s) -
Tokaji,
Shiota,
Kazuya Kobayashi
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
fatigue and fracture of engineering materials and structures
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.887
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1460-2695
pISSN - 8756-758X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1460-2695.1999.00163.x
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , alloy , particle size , silicon carbide , fatigue limit , composite number , particle (ecology) , aluminium , powder metallurgy , stress (linguistics) , paris' law , metallurgy , crack closure , fracture mechanics , microstructure , linguistics , chemistry , oceanography , philosophy , geology
The effect of particle size on rotary bending fatigue behaviour was studied for powder metallurgy 2024 aluminium alloy composites reinforced with 10 wt% silicon carbide particles (SiC p ). Average particle sizes of 5, 20 and 60 μm were evaluated. Particle size had a significant influence on fatigue strength, indicating an increased fatigue strength with decreasing particle size. The composite with 5 μm SiC particles showed higher fatigue strength than the unreinforced alloy. The incorporation of 20 μm SiC particles led to an increase in fatigue strength at a high stress level, but the improvement diminished with decreasing stress level, and a slightly decreased fatigue strength was observed at low stress level, as compared with the unreinforced alloy. The composite with 60 μm SiC particles exhibited a considerable decrease in fatigue strength. Fatigue cracks initiated at several different microstructural features, e.g. surface defects, inclusions and particle–matrix interfaces, and crack initiation was considerably affected by particle size. Fatigue strength was found to depend strongly on the resistance to crack initiation, because there was no discernible difference in small crack growth between the unreinforced alloy and the composites, particularly at a low maximum stress intensity factor.