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Tensile behaviour of squeeze cast AM100 magnesium alloy and its Al2O3 bre reinforced composites
S. Jayalakshmi, S.V. Kailas, S. Seshan*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India Received 22 November 2001; accepted 22 April 2002

Abstract Magnesium alloys are increasingly used in automotive and aerospace applications mainly due to their light weight combined with reasonably high tensile properties. In addition to providing a large reduction in weight, magnesium alloys exhibit excellent machinability and good damping capacity. However, their low mechanical properties when exposed to elevated temperatures limit their usage. Making composites out of these magnesium alloys by reinforcing them with ceramic particles or bres appears to be a viable alternative for improving their thermal stability. The work reported here involved experimental studies on the tensile behaviour of AM100 magnesium alloy and its composites at different temperatures. Fractographic studies justify the effect of temperature on the tensile behaviour. q 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
Keywords: Magnesium alloys; A. Metal matrix composites (MMCs); B. Mechanical properties; D. Fractography

1. Introduction In recent times, magnesium alloys have gained a prominent position in automotive, aerospace and electronic industries where weight reduction is an important requirement. Magnesium alloys offer light weight, high stiffness, excellent machinability, good dimensional stability and damping capacity [1]. Among the currently used magnesium alloys, the Mg Al systems (with and without zinc) offer reasonably high strength properties at room temperature and are in wide use. Though other alloy systems such as those containing zirconium, rare earth elements and thorium exhibit slower drop in properties up to 250 8C, their high cost and difculties in casting have limited their use to certain specic applications. The Mg Al system accounts for about 90% of the total applications involving magnesium alloys and nd usage in computer housings, portable telecommunication instruments, passenger seat frames and instrument panels [2]. However, Mg Al alloys can be used safely only up to about 150 8C; even at this temperature, considerable loss in strength is evident [3]. Hence, it is obvious that their application as structural materials is restricted due to the reduction in their mechanical properties at increasing temperatures. Therefore, a need has been felt
* Corresponding author. Fax: 91-80-3600648. E-mail address: seshan@mecheng.iisc.ernet.in (S. Seshan). 1359-835X/02/$ - see front matter q 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. PII: S 1 3 5 9 - 8 3 5 X ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 4 9 - 0

to improve the mechanical properties of these alloys at high temperatures. Literature review [4 7] indicates that making composites out of the alloys would provide a workable solution to the above. The base magnesium alloys (matrix) may be reinforced with ceramic constituents (in the form of particles, bres or whiskers) that would provide improvement in strength properties at high temperatures. Earlier investigations [8 11] on the composites of aluminium and copper alloys point out that in addition to improvement in strength and thermal stability, appreciable enhancement in hardness, stiffness and wear resistance was also realized. The squeeze casting process (that renes grains and eliminates porosity) is suitable to produce premium quality castings. An extension of the above, the squeeze inltration method, is a simple and economical method for producing short bre reinforced metal matrix composites [10,12,13]. Literature available on magnesium alloy castings and their composites produced using the squeeze casting technique is rather limited. In this work, magnesium alloy AM100 and its composites (reinforced with safl alumina short bres) were processed through the squeeze casting technique. The alloy and composite castings produced were characterized for their tensile behaviour at different temperatures and the fractured specimens were examined using a scanning electron microscope.

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2. Experimental details The magnesium alloy AM100 (Mg 9.3 to 10.7Al 0.13Mn) castings and composites were produced using the squeeze casting and squeeze inltration techniques, respectively. The squeeze pressure was maintained at 40 MPa for both the alloy and its composites. Safl alumina short bres were used as the reinforcement material (bre length: 200 mm and mean bre diameter: 3 mm). Three volume fractions (viz. 15, 20 and 25%, respectively), of bre preforms were used. The cylindrical preforms were of diameter 70 mm and height 30 mm and the initial preform temperature was 850 8C. The base alloy castings and the composites produced were heat-treated to the T6 condition for attaining peak hardness. For microstructural studies, specimen preparation included initial dry polishing on SiC abrasive sheets (220, 320, 400 and 600 grits) followed by wet alumina and diamond polishing. The polished specimens were etched in a glycol etchant [14] for 30 60 s. Tensile tests of the peak hardened test specimens were conducted in a 2-ton Monsanto tensometer (with a high temperature furnace attachment) at a controlled strain rate of 0.001 s21. Tensile tests were conducted at four different test temperatures, viz. 25 (room temperature), 100, 150 and 200 8C, respectively. Fracture analysis was done using a Jeol scanning electron microscope.

Fig. 2. Scanning electron micrograph of AM100 composite (20% Vf).

3. Results and discussions 3.1. Microstructure Typical microstructures of the unreinforced alloy and its composites (20% Vf) are shown in Figs. 1 and 2, respectively. Microstructural analysis of the unreinforced alloy (Fig. 1) indicates the presence of eutectic along the grain boundaries, within which is present the b-Mg17Al12 precipitates [2,14 18]. The precipitates are hard and brittle [2] and contribute to the high hardness values. Fig. 2 shows

the cross-section of the composite cut in a direction normal to the thickness direction of the preform. The short bres are distributed in a planar, isotropic orientation as a result of the method of production of the preform [15,19]. In the composites, the bres are uniformly distributed throughout the matrix. Earlier works [20,21] indicate that the bre/ matrix interface acts as nucleation sites for precipitation to occur during aging, thereby increasing the hardness with increasing bre volume fraction. It is observed that the highest volume fraction (25%) resulted in a hardness value (165 BHN) that is nearly twice that of the unreinforced base alloy (85 BHN). In an earlier work reported elsewhere [22] it was observed that the aging behaviour of AM100 magnesium alloys and its composites exhibited a rapid reduction in aging time with increase in aging temperature, indicating the acceleration in the aging kinetics. Such a behaviour has also been observed earlier in aluminium composites [23,24]. 3.2. Tensile behaviour 3.2.1. Unreinforced alloy The ultimate tensile strength of the unreinforced base alloy at different test temperature is shown in Fig. 3. The unreinforced alloy is very sensitive to temperature and undergoes a drastic reduction in strength as the test temperature increases. At the highest test temperature of 200 8C, the strength drops to almost one-third of its room temperature value. Fig. 4 shows the variation of % elongation with test temperature. It is observed that the % elongation of the alloy increases initially with increasing test temperature; it reaches a maximum value at 150 8C and reduces there after. The highest test temperature (200 8C) being very close to the aging temperature (225 8C), gross precipitation coarsening would occur leading to a reduction in strength as well as ductility of the alloy [24]. The fractographic evidences of the alloy specimens are shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 5(a) shows dominant brittle intergranular fracture at room temperature. The presence of brittle Mg17Al12 precipitates along the grain boundaries contributes to this. As the temperature increases, ow of the

Fig. 1. Scanning electron micrograph of unreinforced AM100 alloy showing: (A) matrix, (B) eutectic along grain boundaries, (C) Mg17Al12 precipitates within the eutectic network.

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Fig. 3. Variation of ultimate tensile strength of AM100 composites with temperature.

material would introduce ductility into the alloy with the fracture surface showing large dimples. This change in the fracture mode may be due to the introduction of additional slip planes [25] in the alloy that occurs with increasing temperature. At 150 8C, the alloy thus shows prominent ductile failure (Fig. 5(b)) that is in consensus with the high elongation values obtained. But, at 200 8C, the highest test temperature, the fracture behaviour changes and the alloy again fails by intergranular failure (Fig. 5(c)) indicating the weakening of the grain boundaries due to precipitate coarsening [2]. 3.2.2. Composites Fig. 3 shows the variation of tensile strength of the composites (of different volume fractions) with temperature. At room temperature, composites of all volume fractions exhibit similar behaviour as the base alloy,
Fig. 5. Scanning electron micrographs of fractured alloy specimens tested at different temperatures: (a) 25, (b) 150, (c) 200 8C.

Fig. 4. Variation of % elongation of AM100 composites with temperature.

indicating that the room temperature behaviour is largely controlled by the inherent brittle matrix. However, with increase in temperature, unlike the base alloy, the composites do not exhibit any monotonic decrease in strength. This is attributed to the load bearing capacity of the bres at higher temperatures. Fig. 4 shows the variation of % elongation of the composites with temperature. The composites exhibit lower ductility in comparison to the base alloy, the reason being the presence of brittle ceramic bres. Therefore, with increase in bre volume fraction, the % elongation of the composites continues to decrease. As the temperature increases, the difference in the elongation values amongst the MMCs reduces such that at the highest test temperature, all the composites exhibit almost the same

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Fig. 6. Scanning electron micrographs of fractured composite specimens tested at different temperatures: (a) 25, (b) 100, (c) 150, (d) 200 8C.

values of % elongation. In comparison, the base alloy exhibits elongation values that are almost an order of magnitude greater than that of the composites, indicating the inuence of bres on the mechanical behaviour. Fig. 6(a) (d) show the representative scanning electron micrographs of the fractured surfaces of the composites (20% Vf) tested at different temperatures. At room temperature, MMCs with all volume fractions exhibit similar behaviour as that of the base alloy. Fig. 6(a) provides the evidence of large matrix cracking depicting that the inherently brittle matrix material largely controls the room temperature behaviour of the composites. The absence of plastically induced load transfer to bres, due to the limited ductility of the matrix causes the early failure of the matrix. The few bre pull-outs seen in Fig. 6(a) further indicate that the interfacial strength of the composite is good [24]. As the temperature increases to 100 8C, the load is taken up by the bres due to the plastic ow of the matrix, thus increasing the absolute value of UTS at elevated temperatures. Fig. 6(b) shows the reduction in matrix cracking and an increase in the ow of the matrix, as seen from the dimples on the fracture surface. At this temperature, bre pull-outs are also observed. At 150 8C, overaging of precipitates occur [22,24], in addition to the large ow of matrix that leads to bre cracking. As the precipitates are largely present along the bre/matrix interface [15,21], the interface is weakened resulting in large bre pull-outs (Fig. 6(c)). In these randomly oriented

bre composites, bre/matrix debonding and bre failure occur in bres that are oriented normal to the loading direction, whereas bre pull-outs are dominant in bres that are aligned along the loading direction. Such occurrences have been earlier observed by many investigators [5,24,26, 27]. From Fig. 6(c), it can be seen that bre pull-outs largely occur in the bres that are oriented parallel to the loading direction. With increase in test temperature (200 8C), overaging process accelerates leading to further reduction in the strength of the composites. Earlier works [22,24] also indicate that higher the bre volume fraction and aging temperature shorter is the attainment of peak aging time. Hence, higher volume fraction composite overages more rapidly than its lower volume fraction counterparts. The reversal in trend observed in the strength values of the composites at higher temperatures (Fig. 3) is attributed to this rapid overaging process. In addition to overaging, the softening of the matrix at these temperatures transfers large load to the bres resulting in bre cracking (Fig. 6(d)). Chawla [28] suggests that the ow of the matrix that occurs at high temperatures causes large local stresses on the bres resulting in bre deformations and bre breakage. Any ow of the matrix surrounding the bre would result in a highly directional, local stress eld on the bre. As the temperature increases, this stress increases and such a high local stress would cause local plastic deformation. When the bre that is carrying this high stress reaches its fracture strain, it would crack resulting in complete failure, as seen in Fig. 7.

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References
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Fig. 7. Scanning electron micrograph of bre cracking leading to bre failure at high temperatures.

It is clear that the changes in the microstructure such as the coarsening of precipitates that occur during the test play a very important role in determining the tensile strength of the composite. In any attempt to estimate the strength using ROM methods (rule-of-mixtures) for randomly oriented short bre composites [27,29 31], it would be difcult to take into account (apriori) the microstructural changes such as precipitation coarsening. Moreover, assuming the strength of the matrix material as that of the unreinforced alloy in those estimations would be too simplistic, as residual stresses are created at the interface due to thermal mismatch, which would signicantly affect the mechanical behaviour of the composites [28]. More importantly, both of these (overaging and residual stresses) are accelerated with increase in bre volume fraction. Devoid of such considerations, the theoretical estimates could be far away from the real experimental values.

4. Conclusions 1. The inherent brittle nature of AM100 alloy, determined by the nature and distribution of precipitates, dominate its tensile behaviour at all test temperatures. 2. The room temperature strength of the composite is dominated by the brittle alloy matrix. At higher temperatures, the strength is attributed to the load carrying capacity of the bres. 3. The composites exhibit high thermal stability when compared to that of the unreinforced alloy. Though strength reduction with temperature occurs in the composites, they still exhibit reasonably high values for many applications. 4. The strength reduction is mainly caused by overaging and softening of the matrix alloy. This indicates that in addition to matrix ow properties due consideration should be given to the inuence of bres on the precipitation.

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and their effects on mechanical properties. Compos Sci Technol 1993; 24552. [27] Zhu T, Blumenthal WR, Lowe TC. The tensile strength of short brereinforced composites. J Mater Sci 1997;32:2037 43. [28] Chawla KK. Metal matrix composites. Structure and properties of composites. Mater Sci TechnolComprehen Treatment 1993; 14. [29] Friend CM. The effect of matrix properties on reinforcement in short