Fabrication process and bending properties of carbon fibers reinforced Al-alloy matrix composites

Woven carbon fibers reinforced Al-Mg (95-5 wt%) matrix composites were successfully prepared by an electromagnetic casting method. In order to improve the wetting behavior, different stabilizers were respectively used in the electroless plating process to coat the fibers with a better Ni/P layer. The lactic acid offered the most outstanding stabilizing effect. The casting results indicated that the contact time between the molten metal and the carbon fibers was vital to the bonding degree: increasing the solidification time significantly reduced the cavity defects which located near the interface; however, an overly long solidification time would result in a tendency to crack in the centers of the woven fibers. The hot pressing treatment with optimum parameters significantly mitigated the crack and cavity defects which are common in the composite prepared through casting method. The appropriate applied compression ratio turned out to be approximately 6%. Three point bending test showed that the bending strength of the composite had an improvement for 33.6% than that of Al-alloy matrix. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.