LAUSR

Abstract A novel laminar B4C/Al composite was fabricated by vacuum hot-press sintering at a temperature of 680 °C, dwell time of 120 min, and pressure of 30 MPa. The measured Vickers hardness reached maximum and minimum values of 114.29 ± 4.85 HV and 48.59 ± 5.42 HV in the outermost and innermost layers, respectively. The specific “hard-soft-hard” laminar structure was capable of bearing high a load because of the excellent harmony between the different layers. Consequently, the laminar B4C/Al composite was endowed with remarkable mechanical properties, such as bending strength of 767.50 ± 9.52 MPa and flexural toughness of 11.73 ± 0.15 MPa m1/2, which were better than those of a homogeneous B4C/Al composite with the same B4C volume content. The EBSD results showed that the orientation of the Al particles in the laminar composite was random. The stress and strain in the deformed sample were evenly dispersed because of the great coordination of the lamellar structure.