CHARACTERIZATION OF SPATIAL-DISTRIBUTION OF REINFORCEMENT IN POWDER-METALLURGY ROUTE AL SICP METAL-MATRIX COMPOSITES .2. TECHNIQUES BASED ON LOCAL ENERGY-DISPERSIVE X-RAY-ANALYSIS/

A technique for the characterisation of the spatial distribution of se cond phases, based on measurement of the variation in local energy dis persive X-ray analysis is outlined in the present paper. The technique is applied to powder metallurgy route Al-4Cu/20SiC(p) (wt-%) metal ma trix composites. Computer simulation of idealised microstructures show s that it is possible to distinguish between random dispersions of dif ferent volume fractions and between microstructures with cluster's of different sizes and aspect ratios. Measurements from actual materials indicate that the technique is sensitive to small differences in the s patial distribution of the reinforcement and that it is a useful tool for measuring the quality of the microstructures.