A quantitative understanding of the role of ultrasonic treatment (UST) process variables on microstructure and mechanical properties is critical for the development of process maps for manufacturing metal matrix composites (MMCs). This article presents a novel mathematical framework to delineate the functional correlations among ultrasonication time, grain refinement, and hardening in SiC nanoparticle‐reinforced Al matrix composites. UST generates microbubbles and deagglomerates SiC to increase heterogeneous nucleation sites synergistically. The increase in volumetric nucleation density due to SiC addition exhibits slow exponential kinetics with varying ultrasonication time. An outstanding grain refinement efficiency of 62.8% is achieved upon ultrasonication for 90 s. The contributions to an increase in the hardness due to grain refinement and SiC dispersion are isolated to develop correlations between ultrasonication time and hardening. Hardening increases exponentially with treatment time due to the reduction of interparticle distance from sonication‐induced SiC dispersion. These fundamental mathematical correlations constitute a significant advancement toward the development of ultrasonic process maps and MMC manufacturing technology.

中文翻译：

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预测超声波铸造金属基纳米复合材料的微观结构和力学性能与处理时间的关系

对超声处理（UST）工艺变量对微观结构和机械性能的作用的定量理解对于开发制造金属基复合材料（MMC）的工艺图至关重要。本文提出了一个新颖的数学框架，描述了SiC纳米颗粒增强的Al基复合材料中超声处理时间，晶粒细化和硬化之间的功能相关性。UST产生微气泡并解聚SiC，从而协同增加异质形核位点。由于添加了SiC，体积成核密度的增加随着超声时间的变化而呈现出缓慢的指数动力学。超声处理90 s后，晶粒细化效率达到62.8％。隔离了由于晶粒细化和SiC分散而对硬度增加的贡献，从而在超声处理时间和硬化之间建立了相关性。硬化随着处理时间的增加呈指数增长，这是由于与超声诱导的SiC分散体之间的颗粒间距离减小了。这些基本的数学关系构成了向超声波工艺图和MMC制造技术发展的重大进步。