Abstract

Al-Cr-Zr nanocomposite metal powders were prepared by mechnical alloying (MA) in order to develop aircraft structure materials with lighter weight and lower cost than the conventional Ti and Ni alloys. The morphological changes and microstrutural evolution of Al-6wt.%Cr-3wt.%Zr nanocomposite metal powders during MA were investigated by SEM, XRD and TEM. The approximately 50mum sized Al-Cr-Zr nanocomposite metal powders has been formed after 20 h of MA. The individual X-ray diffraction peaks of Al, Cr and Zr were broadened and peak intensitied were decreased as a function of MA time. The observed Al crystallite size by TEM was in the range of 20 nm, which is a simliar value calculated by Scherrer equation. The microhardness of Al-Cr-Zr nanocomposite metal powders increases alomost linearly with increase of the processing time, reaching a saturation hardness value of 127 kg/mm2 after 20 h of processing. The intermetallic compound phase of Al_3Zr_4 in the matrix was identifed by XRD and TEM.