Effect of deformation on properties of Al/Al-alloy ZrB2 powder metallurgy composite

Plastic deformation plays a key role on powder metallurgy(PM) made components in order to enhance properties as per required applications. In the present study, Effect of deformation is studied on Al, Al-2ZrB2, Al-4Cu, Al-4Cu-0.5 Mg, Al-4Cu-2ZrB2 and Al-4Cu-0.5 Mg-2ZrB2 made through PM. All the composites are homogenous grounded for exact compositions and cold compacted in a tool steel die triaxilly. The compacted green compacts are then pressureless sintered at 550 °C for 1 h followed by annealing. The whole sintering process was carried out in continuous argon flow inert atmosphere in order to avoid oxidation during sintering. The sintered composites are cold and hot deformed upto failure. The stress used and strain calculated was correlated to the relative density to evaluate densification behavior. The deformed samples were tested for hardness and correlated to the deformation data. Hardness of deformed composite increased with progressing deformation. The deformed composites are subjected to potentiodynamic polarization study in 3.5% aqueous NaCl solution to determine the corrosion rate which was analyzed with deformation data. Corrosion rate decreased with extent of deformation. •The PM Al alloy composites may be sintered optimally at 550 °C.•2 wt% is the peculation limit of the reinforcements added to the alloy matrix.•The Al-4Cu-0.5 Mg is highly densified within range of 0-1 wt%.•The intermetallics formed and reinforcement enhanced the densification and hardness of the alloy composite.•The corrosion behavior of al alloy composite shows the effect of galvanic couple.