Influence of hot rolling on the deformation behavior of particle reinforced aluminum metal matrix composite

This paper presents the development of a microstructure based finite element model to predict the effective mechanical response and study the failure mechanisms of a particulate metal matrix composite (MMC) which explicitly accounts for changes in microstructure due to thermo-mechanical processing from the as-cast to rolled states. Experimental testing including macro-scale tension, in-situ SEM micro-scale tension, and nano-indentation were used to characterize the deformation behavior and active failure mechanisms. It was found that the damage mechanism transitions from being dominated by void nucleation and growth in the matrix in the as-cast state to interfacial decohesion and particle fracture in the rolled material. The numerical model is used to quantify the contribution of interfacial decohesion and particle fracture damage mechanisms to the local and global continuum response of a hot rolled A359/pSiC MMC.