Cyclic deformation behavior of in situ aluminummatrix

composites of the system AlAl

3
TiTiB
2
Al
2
O
3
S.C. Tjong
a,
*
, G.S. Wang
a,b
, L. Geng
b
, Y.W. Mai
c
a
Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong
b
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, PR China
c
Center for Advanced Materials technology (CAMT), School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering J07,
The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Received 25 August 2003; received in revised form 28 January 2004; accepted 19 February 2004
Available online 12 April 2004
Abstract
Aluminum-based composites reinforced with in situ ceramic TiB
2
and Al
2
O
3
particulates as well as intermetallic Al
3
Ti phase
were prepared through reactive hot pressing of powders from the AlTiO
2
B
2
O
3
and AlTiO
2
B systems. In situ composite derived
from the AlTiO
2
B
2
O
3
system exhibited lower yield and tensile strengths but higher tensile ductility due to its lower Al
3
Ti content.
The low cycle fatigue behavior of in situ composites prepared from such systems under total strain-controlled conditions at room
temperature was investigated. At low strain amplitudes, stable cyclic response was observed in the in situ composites fabricated from
the AlTiO
2
B
2
O
3
and AlTiO
2
B systems. However, initial cyclic hardening followed by softening occurred in the composite
prepared from AlTiO
2
B
2
O
3
system. The fatigue damage was observed to initiate in brittle Al
3
Ti blocks. Thus composite fabri-
cated from AlTiO
2
B
2
O
3
system had longer fatigue lives. The fatigue life data of in situ composites can be described by the Con
Manson relationship.
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: A. Metalmatrix composites; A. Intermetallics; B. Fatigue; B. Mechanical properties; C. Transmission electron microscopy
1. Introduction
The interest in aluminum alloys discontinuously re-
inforced with ceramic particulates has grown consider-
ably during the past two decades. Reinforcement
materials generally used to reinforce aluminum alloys
include carbides (e.g., SiC and TiC), borides (TiB
2
and
ZrB
2
) and oxides (Al
2
O
3
and SiO
2
). Among these rein-
forcing particulates, titanium diborides (TiB
2
) is par-
ticularly attractive because it exhibits high elastic
modulus and hardness and high thermal conductivity
[1]. Particulate-reinforced aluminum-based composites
with high specic strength and stiness have found in-
creasing applications in commercial sectors, transport
and aerospace industries. As structural components in
aerospace applications, the composites are subjected to
many cyclic stresses in their service lives, which can
cause fatigue degradation of the materials. In this as-
pect, the fatigue behavior is crucial in the design, life-
prediction and reliability analysis of the components
fabricated from these materials.
Generally, there are two routes to incorporate ce-
ramic particulates into Al-based alloys. The rst ap-
proach involves synthesizing the ceramic reinforcing
phases directly within the matrix via reactive hot
pressing (RHP) process [2,3]. In the process, ultrane
ceramic particulates are formed in situ by the exother-
mic reaction between the elements constituting the
composites under hot pressing conditions. Such com-
posites are termed as in situ composites. In situ com-
posites exhibit cleaner particlematrix interface, thereby
yielding strong interfacial particulatematrix bonding.
Owing to ne and uniform distribution of particles
within the matrices, the mechanical strength of in situ
composites is enhanced considerably. The second route
*
Corresponding author. Fax : +852-2788-7830.
E-mail address: aptjong@cityu.edu.hk (S.C. Tjong).
0266-3538/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compscitech.2004.02.006
Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 19711980
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involves the introduction of ceramic reinforcements into
the matrices via ingot casting or powder metallurgy
(PM) process. The ceramic particulates are synthesized
separately or ex situ prior to composite fabrication.
With ex situ method, agglomeration of ne ceramic re-
inforcements often occurs during processing. Agglom-
eration of reinforcement could lead to composites
having poor mechanical strength and toughness.
In addition to ceramic particulate reinforcement, in-
termetallic compounds such as Ni
3
Al, NiAl, Cr
3
Si and
Al
3
Ti can be used to strengthen the Al-based alloys
[47]. As compared to most other intermetallic phases,
Al
3
Ti is very attractive because it has a high melting
temperature (1350 C), high Youngs modulus (220
GPa) and relatively low density (3.3 g/cm
3
) [8]. The
mechanical alloying (MA) process has been successfully
employed by several workers to fabricate the Al-based
composites reinforced with signicant Al
3
Ti content [9
14]. Al
3
Ti compound can be formed in the AlTiO
2
system as a consequence of the following reaction [7,11]:
3TiO
2
4Al !2Al
2
O
3
3Ti 1
Ti 3Al !Al
3
Ti 2
3TiO
2
13Al !3Al
3
Ti 2Al
2
O
3
3
Al
3
Ti of dierent sizes and morphologies produced from
above the chemical reactions were reported [7]. It is of
distinct advantage to form TiB
2
and Al
3
Ti phases si-
multaneously in aluminum matrices, yielding in situ
composites containing ceramic reinforcement and in-
termetallic phase. Tjong and Ma [2,3] reported that
TiB
2
, Al
2
O
3
and Al
3
Ti can be developed in AlTiO
2
system with the incorporation of boron or B
2
O
3
. When
the B content approaches a B/TiO
2
molecular ratio of 5/
3 in the AlTiO
2
B system, the reaction between TiO
2
,
Al and B occurs as follows:
6TiO
2
10B 11Al !4Al
2
O
3
5TiB
2
Al
3
Ti 4
In the AlTiO
2
B
2
O
3
system, the following reaction also
takes place in addition to reaction (1):
B
2
O
3
2Al !Al
2
O
3
2B 5
The Ti reduced from the reaction (1) then reacts with B
to form TiB
2
or with Al to form Al
3
Ti according to
reaction (2) or (6)
Ti 2B !TiB
2
6
Ex situ AlSiC composites generally exhibit superior
room-temperature fatigue and endurance limit in high-
cycle fatigue (HCF) [15,16], but not in low cycle fatigue
(LCF) [1721]. The improvement in the fatigue life of ex
situ Al-based composites is attributed to an increase in
fatigue strength. Poor LCF life results from the low
ductility of the components associated with the incor-
poration of ceramic reinforcements. Little information
is available in the literature concerning the LCF char-
acteristics of Al-based composites containing in situ
ceramic and intermetallic phase reinforcements. This
paper aims to investigate the microstructure and the
LCF behavior of such in situ composites prepared from
the AlTiO
2
B
2
O
3
and AlTiO
2
B systems via reactive
hot pressing process.
2. Experimental
Atomized aluminum powder (98.6% purity, average
size 29 lm), TiO
2
powder (98% purity, 3 lm), B powder
(97%, <10 lm) and B
2
O
3
powder (99% purity, 90 lm)
were used as raw materials. Gas atomization was used to
produce Al powder. In situ composite prepared from the
AlTiO
2
B
2
O
3
system was designated as composite 1
whereas the sample derived from the AlTiO
2
B system
was designatedas composite 2. Inthe latter composite, the
molecular ratios of B/TiO
2
was adjusted at 5/3 to attain a
nominal amount of 20 vol% reinforcement. The propor-
tion of mixed powders in composite 1 was 9.2% TiO
2
(mass%), 8% B
2
O
3
and 82.8% Al. Powder mixtures of
16.25% TiO
2
, 3.72% B and 80.03% Al were used to pre-
pare composite 2. The rawpowder mixtures of composites
1 and 2 were ball-milled in alcohol for 8 hours at 300 rpm
and then dried. Fine powders were not produced by ball
milling in an alcohol medium due to the low ball-milling
intensity employed. The main eect of the ball milling
was to improve the uniformity of the blending powders.
The cold compacted powder mixtures were heated to
above 900 C in vacuum and maintained for 60 min, then
cooleddownto630 Candhot pressed. The pressedbillets
were extruded at an extrusion ratio of 20:1 at 420 C. X-
ray diraction (XRD) analyses on the mechanically pol-
ished specimens were carried out to examine the in situ
phases of composites. Optical microscopy and scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) were used to examine the
microstructure of in situ composites.
Cylindrical specimens (4 mm diameter and 12.5 mm
gauge length) for fatigue tests were machined from as-
extruded bars with the loading axis parallel to the ex-
trusion direction. The specimens were polished down to
1 lm diamond paste to remove the surface scratches.
Fatigue tests were performed with a computer-con-
trolled, closed-loop servohydraulic facility (Instron
8801) equipped with a 100-kN load cell under fully re-
versed axial tensioncompression loading. The mea-
surements were controlled under total strain amplitudes
using a triangular pushpull wave shape and a constant
nominal stain rate of 2 10
3
s
1
. The tests were con-
tinuously run to fracture of the specimens. Moreover,
rectangular specimens with square cross-section of
4 mm4 mm and 12.5-mm gauge length were also ma-
chined from the extruded bars. Rectangular specimens
were used to observe surface morphology during fatigue
tests. The tests were interrupted in order to examine the
1972 S.C. Tjong et al. / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 19711980
fatigue cracks initiated in the samples. The surface cracks
were examined using a JEOL JSM 820 SEM.
The microstructure of in situ composites prior to and
after fatigue tests were examined using a Philips CM 20
transmission electron microscope (TEM) operating at
200 keV. Thin slices were cut from the extruded bars and
fatigue test specimens. They were mechanically ground
down to 1 lm followed by ion milling until perforation
occurred.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Microstructure and tensile properties
Fig. 1 shows the X-ray diraction patterns of in situ
composites 1 and 2 fabricated from the AlTiO
2
B
2
O
3
and AlTiO
2
B systems, respectively. The diracting
peaks of ceramic Al
2
O
3
and TiB
2
phases can be clearly
observed in the XRD patterns. Moreover, some dif-
fracting peaks corresponding to Al
3
Ti can also be dis-
cerned from the XRD traces. This implies that in situ
ceramic Al
2
O
3
and TiB
2
phases and intermetallic Al
3
Ti
compound can be formed in the AlTiO
2
B
2
O
3
and Al
TiO
2
B systems via RHP reactions described above.
Using the relative intensity of the XRD peaks of
TiB
2
(1 0 0) (at 2h 34:175), Al
3
Ti(1 1 8) (at 2h
39:155), Al
2
O
3
(1 1 0) (at 2h 35:195) and the alumi-
num (1 1 1) plane (at 2h 38:465), the actual relative
volume fractions of these phases can be calculated [22].
The relative ratio of TiB
2
:Al
2
O
3
:Al
3
Ti:Al of composite 1
is found to be 5.3:13.1:3.6:7.8 whilst the ratio of these
phases in composite 2 is 2.8:7.4:11.4:78.4 (Table 1).
Fig. 2(a) shows the SEM micrograph of RHP billet of
composite 1. Large white blocks of several tens of mi-
crometers are Al
3
Ti phase whilst white ne particulates
are TiB
2
and Al
2
O
3
phases as conrmed by energy dis-
persive X-ray (EDAX) analyses. The RHP billet is
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
2
Composite2
Al
2
O
3
TiB
2
Al
Al
3
Ti
Composite1
Fig. 1. XRD patterns of in situ composite 1 and composite 2.
Fig. 2. Microstructure of composites 1. (a) Optical micrograph of RHP
specimen and (b) SEM micrograph of extruded specimen.
Table 1
Actual volume contents (%) of in situ phases and mechanical properties of composites
Sample System TiB
2
Al
2
O
3
Al
3
Ti Al Youngs
modulus (GPa)
Elongation
(%)
Yield strength
(MPa)
Tensile
strength (MPa)
Composite 1 AlTiO
2
B
2
O
3
5.3 13.1 3.6 78 98 6.1 210 294
Composite 2 AlTiO
2
B 2.8 7.4 11.4 78.4 106 1.8 400 480
Pure Al 82 49 59.8
S.C. Tjong et al. / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 19711980 1973
subjected to subsequent extrusion and the microstruc-
ture of extruded composite 1 is shown in Fig. 2(b).
Apparently, large Al
3
Ti phase was fractured into smal-
ler pieces with sizes of several micrometers during ex-
trusion. TEM observation reveals that ceramic Al
2
O
3
and TiB
2
phases appear as equiaxed particles having a
size of about 50 nm (Fig. 3(a)). The crystal structures of
both the Al
2
O
3
and TiB
2
phases are hexagonal closed-
packed. The typical selected area diraction pattern of
TiB
2
is shown in Fig. 3(b). In other region of the same
specimen, dislocations in the form of tangles and debris
can be observed (Fig. 3(c)). As the size of Al
2
O
3
and
TiB
2
phases is rather small (50 nm), such dislocations
are unlikely formed from the large dierence in coe-
cient of thermal expansion (CTE) between the ceramic
and metal phases of the composite. Mismatch disloca-
tions of much high densities are generally formed
around reinforcing particles with micrometer size range.
It is considered that dislocations in Fig. 3(c) are gener-
ated during extrusion. The microstructures of RHP and
extruded composite 2 specimens fabricated from the Al
TiO
2
B system are shown in Figs. 4(a) and (b), respec-
tively. The size and shape of the in situ TiB
2
and Al
2
O
3
ceramic particulates in composite 2 are similar to those
in the composite 1 derived from AlTiO
2
B
2
O
3
system.
Though TiB
2
and Al
2
O
3
look exactly the same, they are
discernible in the EDAX spectrometer attached to the
SEM. Longitudinal section of composite 2 showing no
initial cracks in Al
3
Ti blocks (Fig. 4(c)). Further, TEM
micrograph also reveals the presence of needle- or
whisker-like Al
2
Ti phase (Figs. 5(a) and (b)). Wu and
Pope reported that Al
2
Ti whiskers with an L1
2
structure
act as barrier to dislocation motion in AlAl
3
Ti based
alloys, leading to large hardening eect [23,24].
The tensile properties of pure Al, composites 1 and 2
are summarized in Table 1. This Table reveals that the
Fig. 3. (a) TEM bright eld micrograph of extruded composite 1 showing formation of ceramic particulates; (b) selected area diraction pattern of
TiB
2
phase (zone axis [2423) and (c) other region showing the formation of dislocation structure near ceramic particulates. The arrows indicate
the ceramic particulates.
1974 S.C. Tjong et al. / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 19711980
composite 1 having lower volume content of interme-
tallic Al
3
Ti (3.6%) exhibits lower yield and tensile
strengths but higher tensile ductility compared to com-
posite 2. A dramatic increase in mechanical strengths in
composite 2 is derived from the presence of Al
3
Ti blocks
and Al
2
Ti phases. Al
3
Ti exhibits high-strain rate sensi-
tivity, but its blocks have been found to initiate and
propagate cracks [2,3], thereby causing low ductility in
the composites.
3.2. Cyclic stress response
Figs. 6(a) and (b) show the cyclic stress response
curves of the in situ composites 1 and 2 under various
total strain amplitudes. The cyclic stress response was
determined by monitoring the stress amplitude for ex-
tended period of cycles during total strain amplitude-
controlled fatigue. The stress amplitude was taken as the
average of the peak values of the stress in tension and in
compression. Thus the cyclic stress response curves
represent the variation of stress amplitude with number
of cycles (N) at xed total strain amplitudes (De
t
=2).
From Figs. 6(a) and (b), both composites exhibit es-
sentially stable cyclic behavior, i.e., no cyclic hardening
or softening at low total strain amplitudes of 0.10.4%.
However, composite 1 exhibits very slight hardening, up
to few cycles from initial cycling followed by softening
under total strain amplitudes of 0.6% and 0.8%. Com-
posite 2 shows negligible cyclic hardening followed by
gradual softening for De
t
=2 0:4%. Further, composite
2 failed immediately with a fracture stress of about
286 MPa after cycling for one cycle at a higher strain
amplitude of 0.6%. This is because composite 2 with
higher Al
3
Ti content cannot sustain high applied strain
amplitudes. Large Al
3
Ti blocks break readily when the
applied strain amplitude is large. Therefore, the domi-
nant damage mechanism in composite 2 is fracture of
Al
3
Ti blocks, which takes place progressively as the
Fig. 4. Microstructure of composites 2. (a) Optical micrograph of RHP specimen; (b) SEM micrograph of extruded specimen and (c) longitudinal
section showing the morphology of large Al
3
Ti block.
S.C. Tjong et al. / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 19711980 1975
cyclic strain amplitude increases. However, the applied
load is increased gradually during initial loading in
tensile measurements. Microscopic cracks cannot initi-
ate easily in Al
3
Ti blocks during initial tensile loading,
thus composite 2 exhibits higher yield strength of
400 MPa. The presence of large volume fraction of
Al
3
Ti blocks in composite 2 may lead to a quite large
scatter of static tensile strength and cyclic stress values.
From Fig. 6, it appears that composite 2 containing
higher Al
3
Ti content exhibits higher cyclic response
stresses compared to composite 1 under various total
strain amplitudes investigated. And the fatigue life of
composite 2 is relatively shorter than composite 1 cycled
at various total strain amplitudes (Table 2).
It is well established that the fatigue failure mecha-
nisms of metalmatrix composites are rather compli-
cated and are aected by several factors. These include:
(a) intrinsic properties of the matrix such as composi-
tion, microstructure and aging treatment, (b) intrinsic
properties of particulate reinforcement such as chemis-
try, size, volume, distribution and bonding conditions
with the matrix and (c) test parameters such as strain- or
stress-control, type and frequency of loading as well as
temperature [1521,25]. In the present study, formation
of ne TiB
2
and Al
2
O
3
particulates is benecial in
strengthening of in situ composites. Intermetallic Al
3
Ti
compound with high hardness, stiness and melting
point is an eective strengthening agent for the Al-based
alloys for static tensile measurements [79,1214].
However, large Al
3
Ti blocks are found to be crack ini-
tiation sites in in situ composites during cycling at high
strain amplitudes.
3.3. Dislocation structure and fracture behavior
It is generally known that face-centered cubic metals
(fcc) like pure aluminum and copper harden signicantly
during the early stage of cyclic deformation. The dislo-
cation structures vary from loop patches and cell at low
strain amplitudes to ladder-like and labyrinth structures
Fig. 5. (a) TEM bright eld micrograph showing the precipitation of
Al
2
Ti whiskers in composite 1 and (b) selected area diraction pattern
of Al
2
Ti with L1
2
structure (zone axis [123]).
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Cycles (N)
Cycles (N)
0.1%
0.2%
0.3%
0.4%
0.6%
0.8%
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
S
t
r
e
s
s

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

(
M
P
a
)
S
t
r
e
s
s

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

(
M
P
a
)
0.1%
0.2%
0.3%
0.4%
0.6%
(a)
(b)
Fig. 6. Cyclic stress response curves for (a) composite 1 and (b)
composite 2.
1976 S.C. Tjong et al. / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 19711980
at intermediate strain amplitudes and to cell structure at
high strain amplitudes. Formation of ladder-like and
labyrinth structures is considered to be associated with
strain localization in the persistent slip bands (PSBs).
And fatigue failure is often initiated at PSBs in fcc
metals [2628]. Fig. 7 shows TEM micrograph of com-
posite 1 cycled to failure at a total strain amplitude of
0.2%. The dislocations appear as tangles, debris and
loop patches. Similar dislocation structure consisting of
dislocation loop patches and tangles is observed in the
composite 2 cycled to failure at De
t
=2 0:2% (Fig. 8(a)).
In other region of the same specimen, bundles of loop
patches link together to form the wall of dislocation cell
(Fig. 8(b)). At De
t
=2 0:4%, network of loose disloca-
tion loop patches is distributed within a cell of the
composite 2 (Fig. 9). Han et al. reported that the dis-
location structure of Al-based composite reinforced with
SiC particles consists of dislocation cell with tangles
being distributed evenly within the cell [29]. The in situ
composites 1 and 2 with existing dislocations formed
during fabrication are considered to be in a work-
hardened state. The dislocationceramic particle inter-
action increases the dislocation density. Rearrangements
of existing dislocations and new dislocations generated
during cycling leads to a stable cyclic response behavior
in both composites cycled at low strain amplitudes (Figs.
6(a) and (b)). In general, aluminum alloys strengthened
by non-shearable precipitates and dispersoids such as
alumina do not cyclically harden or soften unless the
total stain amplitudes are very large. Robles et al. [30]
reported that the alumina dispersion strengthened
Table 2
Fatigue life (cycles) of in situ composites under various total strain amplitudes
Sample 0.1% 0.2% 0.3% 0.4% 0.6% 0.8%
Composite 1 158,224 23,020 2634 879 153 59
Composite 2 79,805 11,691 945 95 1
Fig. 7. TEM micrograph of composite 1 cycled to failure at a total
strain amplitude of 0.2%.
Fig. 8. TEM micrographs of composite 2 cycled to failure at a total strain amplitude of 0.2% showing the formation of (a) tangles, debris and patches
and (b) walls of dislocation cells.
S.C. Tjong et al. / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 19711980 1977
copper composites exhibit a relatively stable cyclic re-
sponse. This is because the dislocation substructures
inherited from prior processing are stabilized by Al
2
O
3
particles. The dislocation structures remain largely un-
altered during cyclic deformation. Accordingly, the
dominant damage mechanism found in in situ compos-
ites 1 and 2 was fracture of intermetallic Al
3
Ti blocks,
which took place progressively as the cyclic strain am-
plitude or cyclic period increased.
As mentioned above, composite 1 exhibits very slight
initial hardening followed by softening under total strain
amplitudes of 0.6% and 0.8% (Fig. 6(a)). Such a be-
havior is commonly observed in Al-based MMCs rein-
forced with ex situ particulates at high strain amplitudes
[31,32]. The amount of initial cyclic hardening depends
on the applied strain amplitudes. The particulate-rein-
forced composites tend to have a more pronounced
hardening rate with increasing strain amplitudes. Bier-
man et al. indicated that the initial cyclic hardening is
due to dislocation generation, multiplication and inter-
action during cyclic loading. The occurrence of cyclic
softening is inuenced by the applied strain amplitudes.
Thus the damage of the MMCs increases with increasing
strain amplitudes and therefore increasing loading. The
dominant damage mechanism is the fracture of large
ceramic particles [31,32]. In the present study, an in-
crease in the dislocation density during cycling at high
strain amplitudes results in the dislocation pile-up at
coarse second phase particles such as intermetallic Al
3
Ti
phase. This leads to high concentration of stress in the
coarse intermetallic blocks. When the local stress con-
centration resulting from dislocation pile-up at brittle
phase exceeds a critical value, crack initiation occurs
through cracking of the second-phase particles [15,33].
Al
3
Ti blocks are very brittle and cracks can be initiated
in this phase during deformation [23,24]. At low strain
amplitudes, fatigue cracks can be initiated in Al
3
Ti
phase of the composites 1 and 2 after longer cyclic lives.
Fig. 10 shows the formation of surface fatigue cracks in
coarse Al
3
Ti blocks of the rectangular composite 2 cy-
cled at a strain amplitude of 0.2% for 1000 cycles.
Cracks are initiated in Al
3
Ti blocks due to large strain
localization and then propagate along the metalmatrix
until nal failure (Fig. 11). As mentioned above, there
are no cracks initiated in Al
3
Ti blocks prior to cyclic
deformation (Fig. 4(c)). The formation of initial cracks
in coarse Al
3
Ti blocks could aect the fatigue lifetime of
Fig. 10. Backscattering electron micrograph of rectangular composite 1
fatigued for 2000 cycles at a total strain amplitude of 0.2% showing
crack initiation in coarse Al
3
Ti blocks.
Fig. 9. Distribution of tangles and debris inside a dislocation cell
structure of composite 2 cycled to failure at a total strain amplitude of
0.4%.
Fig. 11. Backscattering electron micrograph of rectangular composite
1 fatigued to nal failure at a total strain amplitude of 0.2% showing
crack propagation along the matrix.
1978 S.C. Tjong et al. / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 19711980
composites. This is because fatigue lifetime is usually
governed by defects especially for metals with hetero-
geneities of several micrometers.
3.4. Low cycle fatigue life
The correlation between the cyclic plastic strain am-
plitude (De
p
=2) and the number of reversals to failure for
the composites can be described by the MansonCon
relationship:
De
p
2
e
0
f
2N
f

C
; 7
where e
0
f
is a fatigue ductility coecient and C is a fa-
tigue ductility exponent. The plastic strain range can be
determined from the cyclic hysteresis loop according to
the following relation:
De
p
De
t

Dr
E
; 8
where E is Youngs modulus, De
t
the total strain range
and Dr the applied stress range.
Figs. 12(a) and (b) show the plastic strain amplitude
vs. reversals to failure (2N) for in situ composites in-
vestigated. Linear regression analysis was used to t the
experimental data for the ConManson plot. An ex-
trapolation of the best t is made to determine the value
of cyclic plastic strain at 2N
f
1. This corresponds to
the fatigue ductility coecient (e
0
f
) and is related to cy-
clic ductility of the material. The slope of the plot yields
the fatigue ductility exponent (C). From the Con
Manson plots, composites 1 and 2 having dierent vol-
ume fractions of reinforcing Al
2
O
3
and TiB
2
particles
and Al
3
Ti blocks exhibit dierent values of C and e
0
f
.
Composite 1 containing lower Al
3
Ti content exhibits
much higher e
0
f
value than composite 2. Thus, composite
1 has larger LCF endurance than the composite 2.
4. Conclusions
(1) Reactive hot pressing of AlB
2
O
3
TiO
2
system and
AlBTiO
2
system resulted in the formation of ce-
ramic Al
2
O
3
and TiB
2
particulates (50 nm) as well
as coarse intermetallic Al
3
Ti blocks. Composite 2
with higher Al
3
Ti content showed considerably
higher tensile strength but poorer tensile ductility
compared to composite 1.
(2) Composite 1 exhibited lower cyclic response stresses
but higher fatigue life compared to composite 2 cy-
cled at various total strain amplitudes. Both in situ
composites showed stable cyclic behavior when fa-
tigued under low strain amplitudes. Initial cyclic
hardening followed by cyclic softening was observed
in the composite 1 cycled at 0.6% and above. How-
ever, composite 2 failed immediately after deforming
for one cycle only at a strain amplitude of 0.6%. The
fatigue damage of both composites was originated
from brittle Al
3
Ti blocks. The cracks then propa-
gated through the metalmatrix until nal failure.
(3) LCF data of the two in situ composites can be de-
scribed by the ConManson relationship. The fa-
tigue ductility coecient (e
0
f
) of composite 1is
higher than that of composite 2. This implies that
the LCF endurance of composite 1 is higher than
that of composite 2.
Acknowledgements
The work described in this paper was fully supported
by a grant from City University of Hong Kong (Project
No. 7001362).
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
1E-3
0.01
0.1
1
P
l
a
s
t
i
c

s
t
r
a
i
n

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

(
%
)
Reversals to failure (2N
f
)
Reversals to failure (2N
f
)
=
'
f
4.996
C= - 0.437
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
1E-3
0.01
0.1
1
P
l
a
s
t
i
c

s
t
r
a
i
n

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

(
M
P
a
)
C= - 0.334
=
'
f
0.593
(a)
(b)
Fig. 12. Loglog plots of the plastic strain amplitude versus reversals to
failure for (a) composite 1 and (b) composite 2.
S.C. Tjong et al. / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 19711980 1979
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