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Spark Plasma Sintering of Cryomilled Nanocrystalline Al Alloy - Part I: Microstructure Evolution

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Abstract

Aluminum alloys are widely used because they are lightweight and exhibit high strength. In recent years, spark plasma sintering (SPS) technology has emerged as a viable approach to sinter materials due to its application of rapid heating and high pressure. In this study, SPS was chosen to consolidate dense ultrafine-grained (UFG) bulk samples using cryomilled nanostructured Al 5083 alloy (Al-4.5Mg-0.57Mn-0.25Fe, wt pct) powder. Both bimodal microstructure and banded structure were observed through transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigation. The evolution of such microstructures can be attributed to the starting powder and the process conditions, which are associated with the thermal, electrical, and pressure fields present during SPS. A finite element method (FEM) was also applied to investigate distributions in temperature, current, and stress between metallic powder particles. The FEM results reveal that the localized heating, deformation, and thermal activation occurring at interparticle regions are associated with the formation of the special microstructure.

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Acknowledgments

This article is based upon work supported by the United States Army TACOM-ARDEC under Contract No. W05QKN-09-C-118 and the Office of Naval Research with Grant No. N00014-07-1-0745. Part of DL’s work is also supported by the Young Scientist Foundation of Shandong Province, China (Grant No. BS2009CL043).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Yuhong Xiong (Postdoctoral Researchers), Dongming Liu (Visiting Assistant Researcher, Associate Professor), Ying Li (Postdoctoral Researcher), Baolong Zheng (Postdoctoral Researchers), Enrique J. Lavernia (Distinguished Professor) & Julie M. Schoenung (Professor)

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250061, P.R. China

    Dongming Liu (Visiting Assistant Researcher, Associate Professor)

  3. United States Army, RDECOM-ARDEC, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, 07806, USA

    Chris Haines (Senior Metallurgist), Joseph Paras (Materials Engineer), Darold Martin (Senior Materials Engineer) & Deepak Kapoor (Group Leader)

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  1. Yuhong Xiong
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  2. Dongming Liu
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  3. Ying Li
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  4. Baolong Zheng
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  5. Chris Haines
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  7. Darold Martin
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  8. Deepak Kapoor
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  9. Enrique J. Lavernia
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  10. Julie M. Schoenung
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Correspondence to Julie M. Schoenung.

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Manuscript submitted February 24, 2011.

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Xiong, Y., Liu, D., Li, Y. et al. Spark Plasma Sintering of Cryomilled Nanocrystalline Al Alloy - Part I: Microstructure Evolution. Metall Mater Trans A 43, 327–339 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-011-0933-3

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