Processing and microstructural characterization of Al-Cu alloys produced from rapidly solidified powders

This paper concerns the processing of Al-Cu alloys via a novel powder-metallurgy route. The specific technique used for powder processing involves the rapid solidification of coarse, molten droplets following impulse atomization. This produces a fine, homogeneous, dendritic microstructure within the alloy granules. Following consolidation via hot pressing, the microstructure consists mostly of an Al matrix with fine CuAl2 particles and partially recrystallized dendrites. Further heat treatment and/or thermomechanical processing completes the spheroidization process in the CuAl2 phase. Blending powders with different Cu has been used to make materials with a bimodal distribution of the local particle-volume-fraction content. The high temperature (773 K) strength of these materials decreases with increasing CuAl2 content. This can be explained using a flow model based on superplastic deformation, controlled by diffusion-accommodated sliding at Al grain boundaries. This mechanism may also explain the deformation-enhanced particle coarsening observed during channel-die forging operations.