Friction stir processing of Al-CNT composites

• Main Authors: Du, Zhenglin, Tan, Ming-Jen, Guo, Jun-Feng, Wei, Jun
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Friction stir processing; Nanocomposites
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/82911; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42424
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Friction stir processing (FSP) is a solid-state process with the ability to refine grain sizes and uniformly disperse particles to improve the mechanical properties of the base material. In this study, FSP was performed on AA6061-T6 with and without additions of multi-walled CNTs. For FSP on monolithic Al plates, dendrites were broken down and dispersed uniformly with the increase in number of passes. As for FSP of Al–CNT composites, the CNTs have been successfully dispersed with three FSP passes. Dispersion is more uniform with increasing number of passes. The Vickers hardness and tensile yield strength were found to have improved after performing FSP with the addition of CNT as compared to FSP of AA6061-T6 without CNT.