Hot deformation behavior of TC4-PCS composites by powder metallurgy

The in-situ synthesized particle reinforced TC4 matrix composites were prepared by powder metallurgy pressureless sintering using polycarbosilane （PCS） as precursor. The thermal compression simulation experiments were conducted on TC4-1PCS （mass fraction of PCS is 1%） composites at 850-1100 ℃ and 0.001-1 s-1 to analyze the stress-strain curves of the composites under different parameters using the Gleeble-3500 thermal simulation testing machine. The effects of deformation parameters on the reinforced phase particles， matrix structure and densification were analyzed by OM， SEM and EBSD methods. The results indicate that the TiC reinforced phase particles with the size of 5-10 μm and large amount of residual pores are observed in the TC4-1PCS composites before hot deformation. The β transition temperature（Tβ） of TC4-1PCS matrix is 1000-1050 ℃. When deformed above Tβ， matrix of composite consists of lamellar quenched martensite， while the matrix turns into duplex microstructure， when deformed below Tβ. The deformation temperature determines the relative density and microstructure types of the composites， while the strain rate affects the phase size in the matrix and residual porosity. The densification of TC4-1PCS composites can be promoted by the increase of deformation temperature and the decrease of strain rate， while the increase of strain rate has obvious effect on the microstructure refinement. The microstructure refinement and densification of TC4-1PCS composites can be achieved by the deformation at 1050 ℃ and 0.1 s-1.