The role of equiaxed particles on the yield stress of composites

Possible explanations are investigated for the yield strength enhancement of discontinuously reinforced Al alloy matrix MMCs, for the case of low temperature yield behavior where deformation occurs by dislocation slide. The Al alloys contain 0.1-10 micron diameter equiaxed particle discontinuous reinforcements of TiB2, Al2O3, and TiC. Attention is given to a single dislocation-particle interaction model, and both dislocation pile-up and forest-hardening multiple-dislocation particle interaction models.