Abstract

This work was conducted to study the corrosion behavior of the steel particle reinforced copper matrix composites, under different conditions; namely heat treatment, concentration of corrosion media, and different weight percent of steel particles.

The density, corrosion rate, micro-structure, and Vickers micro-hardness, were investigated. The results showed that composites with limited steel particle contents can be used. The microstructure of the composites showed severe corrosion of the steel particles especially in the low steel particle content ones, which gave an effect more or less similar to the pitting corrosion. The Vickers micro-hardness showed a development in the hardness of the different zones of the composite due to the effect of the cold working and subsequent annealing, but yet with the same marked increment in micro-hardness at the particle-matrix interface. The later gave a strong indication that diffusion was taken place. Corrosion rate increased with increasing steel particle contents, because of severity corrosion in steel particles.

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