Comparison of microparticles and nanoparticles effects on the microstructure and mechanical properties of steel-based composite and nanocomposite fabricated via accumulative roll bonding process

In the present work, a comparison of microparticles and nanoparticles effects on the microstructure and mechanical properties of steel-based composite and nanocomposite fabricated via accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process was studied. The microstructure of the fabricated composite and nanocomposite after fourth cycle of the ARB process exhibited an excellent distribution of SiC micro/nano particles in the IF steel matrix without any porosity. Unlike the nanocomposite, the particle breaking (cracking) was one of the most important phenomena that occurred during ARB process of composite. The findings revealed that with increasing the number of ARB cycles, the tensile strength of the ARB-processed composite and especially nanocomposite improved, but their elongation decreased at first step and then increased at second step. In addition, the ARB-processed composite and especially nanocomposite exhibited a higher hardness than the annealed IF steel so that the hardness values of the composite and nanocomposite were 4.18 and 4.44 times higher than that of the annealed IF steel, respectively.