Studies on the formability of powder metallurgical aluminum-copper composite

Formability is concerned with the extent of deformation that the materials undergo before failure; thus its investigation is critical for successful processing of materials during bulk deformation. The present investigation has been undertaken to generate the forming limit diagrams for powder metallurgical aluminium-copper composites for different initial relative densities and copper contents. Sintered aluminium-copper composite compacts of 2%, 4% and 6% copper content with different initial relative densities have been prepared by applying recommended powder compaction pressures. The material properties such as apparent strain hardening exponent and strength coefficient were determined using stage wise compression test to generate the formability limit diagram. Densification curves were plotted to investigate the effect of initial relative density and copper content on the pore closure phenomena during deformation. Theoretical and experimental investigations using standard ring compression test were carried out to determine friction factor between tool and work piece interfaces for different initial relative density and copper content. The critical transition densities vide the forming limit diagram were found to be 84%, 85.3%, 86% and 87.5% for pure sintered aluminium, Al-2%Cu, Al-4%Cu and Al-6%Cu composites respectively. The friction factor between tool and work piece interfaces has showed increasing pattern for all the cases with decrease in the initial relative density and increase in the copper content of the composite.