COMPARISON BETWEEN THE EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL TENSILE BEHAVIOR OF ALUMINUM-BASED METAL-MATRIX COMPOSITES REINFORCED WITH PREFORMS OF ALPHA-ALUMINA PLATELETS

In this article, the tensile behaviour of an aluminium matrix composit e reinforced with new preforms of ct-alumina platelets was studied bot h from an experimental and a theoretical point of view. The investigat ed composite characterized by a well-defined microstructure allowed us to establish a comparison between the experimental and theoretical ev olutions and to check the ability of Eshelby-type theoretical models t o assess the tensile properties of a particulate metal matrix composit e. The analysis of the tensile properties was focused on the interpret ation of Young's modulus and on the 0.2% proof stress of the composite , considering successively the effect of the variable parameters of th e reinforcement on these two tensile characteristics. Young's moduli w ere assessed by an iterative Eshelby method developed in our laborator y and likely to take into account all the parameters defining the micr ostructure of the investigated composite; 0.2% proof stresses were ana lyzed by a hybrid model based both on dislocation mechanics and on the iterative Eshelby method.