achieving high strength in fe-based metallic glass reinforced aluminum matrix composites through combined ball milling and spark plasma sintering

This study examines the production and analysis of aluminum matrix composites reinforced with fe-based metallic glass (fmg) using powder metallurgy techniques. fmg particles with nominal composition fe75si15b5zr5 were synthesized using the mechanical alloying process. for the fabrication of composites, two methods were used: (a) mixing gas atomized pure aluminum (ga) powder with fmg powder and consolidating via spark plasma sintering (sps) to form the ga/fmg composite, and (b) ball milling the ga powder before mixing with fmg powder and sps consolidation to produce the (ga+bm)/fmg composite. as a control, pure aluminum powders before and after the ball milling process were also consolidated using sps under identical conditions, which were designated as ga and ga+bm, respectively. results showed a notable difference in relative density (approximately 5%) between the (ga+bm)/fmg and ga/fmg composites. quantitative analysis revealed that reinforcing particles were more evenly distributed in the ga/fmg composite. the (ga+bm)/fmg composite exhibited a compressive yield strength of 156 mpa, double that of the ga/fmg composite, but with reduced ductility. fractography indicated that the (ga+bm)/fmg composite was more brittle than its ga/fmg counterpart.