Mechanical properties and microstructure characterization of spark plasma and conventional sintering of Al-SiC-TiC composites

This work presents fabrication and characterization of Al-SiC-TiC composite materials containing 15 wt % SiC and 5 wt% TiC as reinforcing phases. The spark plasma and conventional sintering were done at 440 degrees for 25 min and 600 degrees for 60 min, respectively. The results indicate that the mechanical properties obtained by sprak plasma process are much higher than conventional sintering. The 99.2 +/- 0.4% and 90.4 +/- 0.7% of theoretical density were measured for samples sintered by SPS and conventionally, respectively. XRD analyses indicate no decomposition of SiC and TiC reinforcements. SEM investigations demonstrate uniform distribution of reinforcement particles in aluminum matrix and also fine microstructure of the SPS samples. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.