THE EFFECT OF VOLUME FRACTION OF Al2O3 ON SYNTHESIS BEHAVIOR OF NANOSTRUCTURED Al-Al2O3 COMPOSITE DURING LOW TIME MILLING PROCESS

Abstract

In this work, low time mechanical milling process was employed to investigate the effect of volume fraction of Al2O3 on synthesis behavior of nanostructured Al-Al2O3 composite. Four different volume fractions of Al2O3 were mixed with the fine Al powder and the powder blends were milled for 5 hr. SEM analysis, particle size analysis and bulk density measurements were used to investigate the morphological changes and achieving the steady state. The results showed that increasing the Al2O3 content can provide the steady state particle size. X-ray mapping technique was used to investigate the uniformity of Al2O3 particles in the Al matrix. The results revealed that increasing the volume fraction of Al2O3 leads to increasing the uniformity of Al2O3. The XRD pattern depicted that increasing the Al2O3 content causes an increase in the crystal defects and micro-strain in the low time milled nanostructured composite powders while the grain size is decreased.