Thermal processing is a useful method for improving the strengthening effects of fibers used to reinforce metal matrix composites (MMCs), but the corresponding models have not been constructed. In this work, a Ti matrix composite (TMC) reinforced by in situ TiB fibers was prepared, then thermal processing was applied to it at different levels of deformation to align the TiB fibers along the loading direction. Changes in the microstructure of the matrix, the orientation and the aspect ratio of the TiB fibers during this process were investigated. It was found that the aspect ratio of TiB fibers decreased sharply after a large amount of deformation. The strengthening effect of TiB fibers in the composite was simulated by strengthening models of the fibers, and the simulated results were verified by the results of tensile tests. The modeled results show that the strengthening factor (C0) of the in situ TiB fibers improved from 0.125 in the as-cast composite to 0.520, 0.688 and 0.858 by the processes with deformation ratios of 0.39, 0.26 and 0.14, respectively. The results of the tensile tests showed that the measured values of C0 gradually deviated from the modeled ones with an increase in the ratio of deformation applied during processing, and the deviation could be interpreted with the strengthening models.
Keywords: fiber aspect ratio; fiber orientation; metal matrix composites (MMCs); strengthening effect; thermal processing route.