Characterisation of mechanically alloyed atomised AI-Ni-Ce-Zr alloy system

Aluminium alloys with a combination of mechanical properties and light weight are in great demand for aerospace structural applications. In fact, researcher's full attention is on development of high strength light alloys for high temperature applications through newer processing techniques such as rapid solidification processing (RSP), mechanical alloying (MA) etc. This paper explains the combined effect of atomization and mechanical alloying. A study was taken up to process the atomised Al-Ni-Ce-Zr system by MA. The main jectives were to understand the atomised AI-Ni-Ce-Zr alloy powder and microstructural evelopment by MA. The MA parameters were optimized for obtaining the milled powder. Atomised and milled powders were characterized by metallography and scanning electron microscope (SEM) for understanding the structure and phase contents. Detailed analysis of the XRD data was carried out to evaluate lattice parameter and the crystallite size of the aluminium lattice for different experimental conditions. Effect of MA on the solid solubility of alloying elements in aluminium were understood. The results obtained by various characterisation techniques provided an idea for developing high strength aluminium alloys for high temperature applications.