Mechanical characterization of PM aluminum composites by small punch test

ABSTRACT In this work Small Punch Test (SPT) was applied to study the mechanical behavior of ultrafine-grained Al-Al2O3metal matrix composites (MMCs) fabricated in situ via powder metallurgy route (HITEMAL®). Such MMCs show attractive mechanical properties, enhanced creep performance and increased thermal stability at elevated temperatures, not normally associated with service of conventional Al alloys, even after prolonged high temperature exposure. MMCs fabricated from two powders of different particle size (d50 = 8.9 and 1.2µm) were evaluated in the present work. SPT was performed at room...