TITLE:
Powder Metallurgical Fabrication and Microstructural Investigations of Aluminum/Steel Functionally Graded Material
AUTHORS:
Mahmoud M. Nemat-Alla, Moataz H. Ata, Mohamed R. Bayoumi, Wael Khair-Eldeen
KEYWORDS:
Powder Metallurgy, Functionally Graded Materials, Aluminum/Steel Electric Transition Joint, Microstructural Investigations
JOURNAL NAME:
Materials Sciences and Applications,
Vol.2 No.12,
December
22,
2011
ABSTRACT: Aluminum/steel electric transition joints (ETJs) are used in aluminum reduction cell for the purpose of welding aluminum rod and steel bracket components. Solid state welding process used for joining aluminum and steel at the electric transition joints have the drawbacks of cracking and separation at the interface surfaces. Cracking and separation at the electric transition joints are caused by the stress singularities that developed due to the mismatch in thermal and mechanical properties of each material. To overcome the drawback of electric transition joints, aluminum/steel functionally graded may be used as electric transition joints or proposed. Therefore manufacturing and investigation of aluminum/steel functionally graded materials fabricated by powder metallurgy process were carried out through the current work. Different samples with different layers of aluminum/steel functionally graded materials were compacted using steel die and punch at the same compacted pressure and sintered temperature. After investigating the different samples of aluminum/steel functionally graded materials under different fabrication conditions, the suitable fabrication regime was determined with the aid of microscopic observations.