Residual stresses in deformed random-planar aluminium/Saffil® short-fibre composites

The evolution of residual stress with plastic pre-strain was studied on a squeeze-cast, 2D-random short-fibre reinforced metal matrix composite (aluminium/Saffil®). Specimens of the composite and of unreinforced reference material were subjected to uniaxial compression tests and deformed to different pre-strains in the range 0.2–9.1%. The mean deviatoric residual stresses in the aluminium matrices of the composite specimens were analysed using a neutron diffraction technique. Results show that the dependence of residual von Mises matrix stress on the pre-strain matches the stress–strain curve of the unreinforced aluminium reference material. This behaviour is explained in light of an Eshelby model.