Propriedades mecânicas da liga Al-Cu-Fe-B com estrutura icosaedral através da técnica de identação instrumentada

Abstract

Quasicrystalline materials have unique properties, such as: high hardness, excellent surface properties, good resistance to oxidation and corrosion and low electrical and thermal conductivities. These materials can be obtained by conventional methods of metallurgy. However, the quasicrystals are quitefragile which makes its use in the form of billets for the manufacture of mechanical components. Therefore, they are preferably used in powder form as reinforcements in composite materials or for use in surface layers by plasma spray. One technique for obtaining the quasicrystal, which is widely used, is the conventional casting technique. This technique is used to obtain the manufacture of alloys in this work. Evaluation of mechanical properties through conventional methods, such as tension, compression, fatigue, among others, is not feasible. This is due to the difficulty, in quasicrystals, in the development of specimens because of the high fragility of this material and testing. One of the ways to evaluate mechanical properties of quasicrystals is given by evaluating the fracture toughness, which is an important design criterion for making quasicrystalline alloys for use in industry. Through methods of Vickers indentation, it is possible to evaluate not only the hardness of the material, but also to evaluate qualitatively the evolution of cracks in materials. The measures of these cracks are used to evaluate some parameters such as Young's modulus (E) and fracture toughness (KIC. The main objective was to study the mechanical properties of Al59, 2Cu25,5Fe12,3B3 alloy obtained by conventional casting, using the method of instrumented indentation. It was seen that for loads of between 80mN and 100mN occur the appearance of cracks. The hardness reaches an almost constant level until a load of approximately 200mN, with a maximum value of 10.6 GPa and a value of 9.4 GPa for a maximum load of 500mN. The modulus of elasticity was calculated as E = 183 ± 6GPa for Berkovich indent and 186 ± 6GPa for Vickers indent, at room temperature. The estimated value of KIC was 0.78 and 2.37 Mpam-1 / 2.