Modeling the strengthening effect of Al–Cu–Fe quasicrystalline particles in Al-based metal matrix composites

In this work, a model that simultaneously considers the combined strengthening contributions of load
bearing, dislocation strengthening and matrix ligament size effects, which has been found to accurately
describe the mechanical behavior of Al-based composites reinforced with complex intermetallic particles
(Scudino et al. (2009) [8]), has been used to predict the mechanical properties of Al-based metal
matrix composites containing different amounts of Al62.5Cu25Fe12.5 quasicrystalline reinforcing particles.
The present results further demonstrate the validity of this model and confirm the importance of the
characteristic matrix ligament size for explaining the strengthening effect of the composites containing
large volume fractions of reinforcement.