Study on Microstructure and Properties of Wire Arc Additive Manufactured Aluminum Matrix Composites Reinforced by Nano-TiC Particles
LÜ Qizhao1, ZHOU Xiangman1, LUO Bin1, LI Bo1, WU Haihua1, ZHANG Haiou2
1. College of Mechanical & Power Engineering of Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China;
2. School of Mechanical Science & Engineering of Huazhong University of Seience and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China)
Introducing the second phase particles into metal materials is one of the important means to improve the mechanical properties of metal materials. In this paper, a new arc additive manufacturing method of TiC/Al6061 composite material coated with TiC reinforced particles in aluminum foil to form a special filler welding wire is presented. The effects of 1%, 2% and 3% TiC reinforced particles on the microstructure and properties of aluminum matrix composites were investigated. The results show that: Compared with the matrix material, the average grain size of the composite material with TiC mass fraction of 3% decreased from 45.5 μm to 25.3 μm, and the tensile strength and yield strength increased from 148.5 MPa and 118.0 MPa to 178.1 MPa and 157.3 MPa, which increased by 19.9% and 33.3%, respectively. The average microhardness increased from 50.5HV to 65.2HV, which increased by 29.1%. The results show that the load transfer strengthening and grain refinement of TiC and Orowan strengthening mechanism are the main reasons for the improvement of mechanical properties of the materials.