Experimental and numerical studies of the effect of whisker misalignment on the hot compressive deformation behavior of the metal matrix composites

The combined experimental and numerical approaches are utilized to investigate the effects of the whisker misalignment and rotation on the stress–strain response of discontinuous SiC whisker reinforced aluminum matrix composites during the hot compressive deformation at 300 °C. It is found from the numerical results that the whisker orientation has significant effects on the stress and rotation of whiskers, but little influences on the flow stress and work hardening of the matrix. Both numerical and experimental results indicate that the whisker misalignment and rotation play an important role in hot deformation behavior of the composites. During the hot compressive deformation, the composites with whisker misalignment angles less than 30° exhibit strain-softening behavior due to the whisker rotation or breakage. However, the composites with whisker orientation angles more than 45° show work hardening phenomenon due to the matrix work hardening. The predicted stress–strain behavior of the composites is in qualitative agreement with the experiment results.