High temperature interfacial studies in aluminium-stainless steel composites

Abstract

Interfacial shear strengths in single wire aluminium-stainless steel composites have been measured by the pull-out test, both at room temperature and high temperatures, as a function of annealing temperatures up to 823 K and times up to 24 h. The post-exposure interfacial shear strengths measured at room temperature have been found to be inversely proportional to the square root of the interfacial compound layer thickness. A tentative mechanism to explain this relationship has been proposed in terms of matrix-compound layer debonding. The growth of the compound layer during high-temperature exposure is accompanied by an increase in its microhardness, presumably resulting from a concurrent precipitation of intermetallics. The interfacial shear strength has been found to be independent of stainless steel wire diameter.