Effect of equal channel angular pressing and torsion on SiC-particle distribution of SiCp–Al composites

Equal channel angular pressing and torsion (ECAPT) was applied to fabricate SiCp–Al composites from the mixture of 35% SiC (volume fraction) particles and 65% Al powder. Based on microstructure observation and the quadrat method, the distributions of SiC particles in different positions of the samples and in different forming stages were studied. And the particle distribution was contrasted with that in the samples fabricated by multi-pass equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). The results show that the shear strain influences the distribution of SiC particles significantly. The distribution homogeneity of SiC particles increases greatly from the compaction stage to the angular pressing stage during ECAPT. The improvement of the particle distribution homogeneity through single pass of ECAPT process is close to that through two passes of ECAP. The relative homogeneous distribution of SiC particles is obtained through ECAPT.