Structural and morphological study of the Al–Si–Mg–SiC composite material produced by mechanical alloying

The research focuses on aluminum composite granules obtained by the mechanical alloying of VAS1 aluminum alloy and silicon carbide initial powders. It was found that the morphology and average size of composite granules change as the time of mechanical alloying increases. There are the processes of aluminum matrix plastic deformation and the introduction of silicon carbide particles into the matrix, «cold welding» of agglomerates to each other and the growth of an average granule size up to 550 μm that occur for 40 hours of processing. After longer mechanical alloying (60 h), the structure of composite granules becomes uniform, and the average particle size reaches ~150 μm remaining virtually unchanged as the process time increases. X-ray analysis showed that there is a change not only in the morphology of composite granules, but also in their internal structure: coherent scattering regions decrease, the lattice constant of the aluminum matrix alloy changes, microdeformations and stacking faults increase. Transmission electron microscopy studies were conducted in order to study the material microstructure more deeply. Their results proved that the material has a uniform ultra-fine grain structure. The solid solution of aluminum has a maximum grain size of 160 nm. Dislocation density in the composite is rather high. The structure features nanosized plate-like Si particles and silicon carbide existing in the material as distributed splintery coarse particles. No diffusion zone between SiC particles and the base material was found.