Abstract
This work investigates the relationships between the components of powders, namely, the powder surface morphology, the flow characteristics and the compressibility of low-energy (microcomposite) and high-energy (nanocomposite) ball milled powders of Al 6061 alloy reinforced with TiO2 particles. The morphology of the above powder as the function of reinforcement and the milling time was studied by using the scanning electron microscope (SEM). The changes in powder characteristics such as the apparent density, tap density, true density and flow rate were examined by the percentage of reinforcement and milling time. The cohesive nature of the powder was also investigated in terms of Hausner ratio and Kawakita plot. Further, the particle/agglomerate size of low-energy and high-energy ball milled powders was explained by the laser particle size analyzer. X-ray peak broadening analysis was used to determine structural properties of mechanically alloyed powders. The compressibility behavior was examined by the compaction equation proposed by Panelli and Ambrosio Filho to investigate the deformation capacity of the powder. The compressibility behavior, namely, the densification parameter (A) of the microcomposite powder (irregular morphology) was decreased significantly with increasing TiO2 content due to the disintegration of TiO2 particles and the cluster formation followed by its agglomeration. The compressibility behavior, namely, the densification parameter (A) of the nanocomposite powder (equiaxed and almost spherical) was decreased slowly with increasing TiO2 content due to work hardening on the matrix powder. With increased milling time, the compressibility behavior of AA 6061-10 wt.% TiO2 composite powders increased up to 30 h of milling due to embedding of TiO2 particles with matrix and changes in powder morphology and finally decreased after 40 h due to work hardening effect. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.