Effects of Friction Stir Processing Number Pass on Reinforcement Particles Distribution and Mechanical Properties of Al/SiC? Composite

In this study, Al/(SiCӘ) hybrid composite was produced on the surface of Al-1050 substrate via friction stir processing to achieve the high hardness of SiC particle and lubricating property of BNh simultaneously. Microstructural studies revealed that grain refinement was occurred in the stir zone (22% reduction of grain size in comparison to base metal). Closer microstructural studies by using scanning electron microscope equipped to Map-EDS analyzer illustrate the relatively uniform distribution of SiC and BNh particles in the Al-1050 matrix. Microstructural studies indicated that increasing FSP passes increased the grain sizes of TMAZ and HAZ more than 20% of base metal grain size. Microhardness evaluation showed that increasing the number of FSP passes resulted in increasing hardness of stir zone (100± 5HV in 8 pass sample in comparison with 60± 5 in 1 pass sample) that was ~70% more than hardness of base metal.