Title: Experimental investigation on the compressibility of Al/Al₂O₃ nanocomposites

Authors: Ahmed Wagih; Adel Fathy; Tamer Ali Sebaey

Addresses: Mechanical Design and Production Department, Faculty of Engineering, Zagazig University, P.O. Box 44519, Zagazig, Sharkia, Egypt ' Mechanical Design and Production Department, Faculty of Engineering, Zagazig University, P.O. Box 44519, Zagazig, Sharkia, Egypt ' Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar

Abstract: The scientific importance of nanocomposites is being increased due to their improved properties. This paper introduces an experimental investigation on the relationship between the reinforcement weight fraction and compressibility of Al/Al₂O₃ during high energy ball milling. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterise the produced powder. The results showed that the grain size of milled powders was about 43 nm with a noticeable presence of agglomerates at 10 wt.% of Al₂O₃. By increasing Al₂O₃ weight fraction to 12% the decrease in grain size was very. With up to 12 wt.% of Al₂O₃, microhardness increases from 62 to 150 HV due to the decrease of the crystallite size. The compressibility behaviour of the nanocomposite powder was decreased slowly by increasing Al₂O₃ content due to work hardening on the matrix powder.

Keywords: nanocomposites; mechanical milling; crystallite size; lattice strain; compressibility; aluminium; Al2O3; aluminium oxide; alumina; nanotechnology; reinforcement weight fraction; grain size; work hardening.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.2016.075497

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 2016 Vol.52 No.3/4, pp.312 - 332

Received: 15 Jan 2015
Accepted: 20 Aug 2015
Published online: 27 Mar 2016 *

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