Nanocomposites of aluminum alloys by rapid solidification processing

Abstract

Aluminium alloys reinforced with transition metal aluminide (Al₃Ti, Al₃Fe, Al₃Ni, etc.) particles possess high specific strength both at ambient and elevated temperature. The improved strength of these alloys are the results of slower coarsening rate of the intermetallic particles due to low diffusivity of the transition metals in aluminium. However, the strength can be enhanced further by refining the microstructure of the alloys to nanometer range. The authors have successfully attempted two important non-equilibrium processing techniques i.e. Rapid Solidification Processing (RSP) and mechanical alloying for the refinement of the microstructure in various aluminium alloys. In this report, authors present a short review of their work on RSP of Al–Ti and Al–Fe alloys to produce nanocomposites.