Further investigation of particle reinforced aluminum matrix composites by indentation experiments

In this paper, a modeling method was introduced for SiC particle reinforced aluminum matrix composite. Micro-indentation technique was used to study the micro properties of both SiC particles and aluminum matrix with Micro-Compression-Tester. Mechanical properties like Young's modulus and hardness were calculated using Oliver and Pharr method. After repeated experiments, the average Young's modulus and the hardness of matrix and particle were calculated as 76.8 and 334.7 GPa, 1.58 and 32.56 GPa, respectively. During the indentation experiments on particle, the phenomenon of particle acting as second indenter was detected from the recorded P-h curves. Besides, the material elastic-plastic properties of matrix were analyzed using inverse method. Based on the micro material properties from indentation, the indentation processing of particle as second indenter has been simulated. Also, the simulation model at micro scale has been established by using such material properties for further investigation.