Investigation of Mechanical Properties of Al-Al2O3 Composites Synthesized By Spark Plasma Sintering

Composite of Al-Al2O3 have been fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) that is known as one of advanced methods of sintering for metal powders. The microstructural studies and elemental qualitative analyses of composites were carried out by Optical Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and EDS analysis.Also, In order to study of mechanical properties, the compressive strength, hardness tests and relative density of samples with zero to 15 Wt% Al2O3 were investigated. The results show increases of hardness up to 95% by increasing of Al2O3 amount, sensitively increasing of strength up to 40% in samples with 5 Wt% Al2O3. Furthermore, in these samples Al2O3 particles are homogenously dispersed in Al matrix. In following, strength amounts are decreased by increasing of Al2O3 Wt% up to 10 and 15%.According to microstructural studies and reducing the relative density of 0.98 to 0.88 is related to unsuitable compressed and the creation of porosity in samples.