Microstructure and compressive mechanical properties of SiC_p/Al composite made by pressureless infiltration technique

65vol.% SiC_p/Al composites were prepared successfully by pressureless infiltration. Microstructural observation on the composite indicates that the particles in the composite were quite uniform. The results show that the composite material has strain rate sensitive flow stress behavior in the high strain rate regime when compared with quasi-static strain rates. The results have demons treated that the flow stress and the yield stress of the composites strongly depend on the particles size and the composites reinforced by smaller particles (100 μm) have high flow stress values.