Indentation strain rate sensitivity of ball-milled spark-plasma sintered Cu-C metal matrix composite

Bulk ultrafine grained metal matrix composites (MMC) have attracted much attention of many researchers due to their potential in terms of excellent mechanical properties for engineering applications, such as high strength, which can be two or more times of that of their coarse grained counterpart. Bulk ultrafine grained Cu-3wt.%C MMC samples were produced by Ball-Milling (BM) followed by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS), at a temperature of 900 °C. The Cu-C MMC was compacted progressively by repeating the BM + SPS procedure without changing the weight ratio between Cu and graphite. The room temperature creep behavior, and the strain rate sensitivity (SRS) were inspected by using nanoindentation measurements. Strain rate ranged 0.0025-to-0.5 s−1, and the contact dwelling times ranged 5-to-300 s. A secondary steady-state regime was reached starting from a dwelling time of 120 s irrespective of the strain rate and Cu-C compaction level. A negative trend of the SRS exponent with Cu-C compaction was obtained, with creep stress exponent as high as 28. These results were discussed according to the microstructure features that differentiated the Cu-3wt.%C MMC obtained by the progressive BM + SPS compaction levels. [Display omitted] •Room temperature creep steady-state was reached at dwelling times above 120s.•SRS exponent, m, negative in all the compaction levels of Cu-3wt.%C MMC.•m decreased linearly with H−1 and validation of m=(kT)/(Vτ) was proposed.•Lowering of m related to a large fraction of twinning formation.•Steady-state creep stress exponent n = 13–28 was related to cell boundary density.