Microstructure, Texture and Mechanical Properties of Al-SiC Composite with Bimodal Structure Fabricated by Multi-Layer Accumulative Roll Bonding

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript reports about the structure and mechanical properties of Al composites with SiC processed by accumulative roll bonding process. The results are encouraging and the article can be accepted after the following improvements.

·         Abstract should be improved by making it consisting of a quick introduction followed by a gap mentioning, quick methodology and brief results. Currently it starts directly with methodology; however, gap-based objective should be an integral part at the start.

 ·         Methodology section can be improved by bifurcating the methods into different aspects e.g. first the processing, then manufacturing based classification of methods and then the characterization techniques. Such bifurcation can be helpful for better understanding of the readers from different backgrounds.

 ·         In the stress-strain behavior of different samples, how many tensile tests per configuration were caried out, and the corresponding values of stress and strain should be reported as average±standard deviation, so that the variation in the test results within and across the batches can be identified.

 ·         Similarly, for the hardness data, variation of the property values need to be reported together with the average value.

 ·         While drawing the conclusions, data variation needs to be incorporated.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The work is devoted to the study of the structure formation in the MARB process of aluminum alloy 1050 and its effect on the mechanical properties.  A large amount of work has been carried out in the work, interesting results have been obtained, which can be published. Before publication, authors need to make minor adjustments and answer the following questions:

1.       The authors compare the mechanical properties of sheets subjected to the MARB process with annealed aluminum alloy sheets. The most indicative will be the use of this alloy in the cold-formed state as a comparison

2.       In Table 2, in work 27, studies of a similar composite material were carried out using ARB. Authors should reflect this in the table to eliminate misunderstandings. And also in the discussion section, compare the results obtained with the existing ones.

3.       Based on the results of the fractograms, there is a feeling that the sheets processed in the M1 and M2 modes did not weld completely during the rolling process. To clarify this fact, it is necessary to analyze the longitudinal section of the sheets for the presence of an interface between the sheets.

4.       Was the rolling process carried out at room temperature or at elevated temperature?

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

Dear reviewer,

Thank you very much for your valuable comments, which are definitely helpful to enhance the quality of our paper. Now we attempt to reply your comments point by point. According to your comments, the parts revised are highlighted by the yellow color and the newly added part are highlighted by the red color in the revised manuscript. The specific reply is as follows.

 

Point 1: The authors compare the mechanical properties of sheets subjected to the MARB process with annealed aluminum alloy sheets. The most indicative will be the use of this alloy in the cold-formed state as a comparison.

 

Response 1: Thank you for this comment. We totally agree with you. The curve of CG-Al in the stress-strain curve was drawn to provide reference and initial performance of the sample. The comparison of mechanical properties of three group samples should be based on cold-formed M1 sample. We have revised the section of mechanical properties in the manuscript.

 

Point 2: In Table 2, in work 27, studies of a similar composite material were carried out using ARB. Authors should reflect this in the table to eliminate misunderstandings. And also in the discussion section, compare the results obtained with the existing ones.

 

Response 2: Thanks for this comment. We have reviewed the literatures and modified some similar composites in the Table2 as shown below to eliminate misunderstanding. The comparisons between the results and existing results have been added in the manuscript.

 

Materials	Number of cycles	Average size of particles (μm)	TS (MPa)	Elongation (%)	Reference
Al-0.5vol%SiC	7	0.05	140	8	[1]
Al-0.5vol%SiC/WO3	7	0.05	180	6	[1]
Al-1vol%SiC	5	5	220	8	[2]
Al-1vol%SiC	6	5	205	11	[3]
Al-1.6vol%SiC	8	7.5	210	7	[4]

 

[1] Baazamat, S.; Tajally, M.; Borhani, E. Fabrication and characteristic of Al-based hybrid nanocomposite reinforced with WO₃ and SiC by accumulative roll bonding process. J. Alloys Compd. 2015, 653, 39-46.

[2] Khdair, A.I.; Fathy, A. Enhanced strength and ductility of Al-SiC nanocomposites synthesized by accumulative roll bonding. J. Mater. Res. Technol. 2020, 9, 478-489.

[3] Alizadeh, M.; Paydar, M.H. Fabrication of nanostructure Al/SiC_P composite by accumulative roll-bonding (ARB) process. J. Alloys Compd. 2010, 492, 231-235.

[4] Reihanian, M.; Fayezipour, S.; Lari Baghal, S.M. Nanostructured Al/SiC-graphite composites produced by accumulative roll bonding: role of graphite on microstructure, wear and tensile behavior. J. Mater. Eng. Perform. 2017, 26, 1908-1919.

 

Point 3: Based on the results of the fractograms, there is a feeling that the sheets processed in the M1 and M2 modes did not weld completely during the rolling process. To clarify this fact, it is necessary to analyze the longitudinal section of the sheets for the presence of an interface between the sheets.

 

Response 3: Thank you for pointing out this issue. We admire your keen insight. Yes, the result of fractograms may cause misunderstanding. The statement of the longitudinal interface of the sample have been added in the manuscript.

 

Point 4: Was the rolling process carried out at room temperature or at elevated temperature?

 

Response 4: Thanks for this comment. The rolling process carried out at room temperature.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript is of scientific interest, but this requires major corrections.

line 2 (Title). I guess, C in SiC should be capital.

Authors did not manage to formulate the novelty of their research. This should be shown in more evident form.

Authors write about grain size of 0.48 um or 0.46 um, but how did authors measure the grain size? Whether 0.48 um is valuable? May this be same value as 0.5 um?

Authors show grain sizes in fig. 5. But there are only single-point measurements. What was the statistics of described measurements and results?

Also, authors do not take into account the large grain size (longitudinal size). This is not correct. As method of preparation provides the elongation of formed grains towards one direction, authors should measure both sizes and calculate size ratio (axial ratio). This information together with the texture analysis described by authors, will explain the crystallographic transformations within the grainstructure due to the processing parameters.

Authors write about bimodal structure, but they do not show grain size distributions, i.e. term "bimodal" can not be used. It was not proven.

Conclusion should be rewritten, as it only describes observed behavior of material and does not contain conclusion by itself.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Title itself lot of  mistakes like - Sic, Ac-cumu--

What is the novelity of the work, it is not highlighted any where in the abstract and introduction.

What is the size of the SiC.

Figure 3 , should be corrected as per standard specification. What is 1 mm in the side view.

Lot of grammatical mistakes and sentence incomplete in the entire manuscript.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 5 Report

The review of the manuscript entitled: "Microstructure, Texture and Mechanical Properties of Al-Sic Composite with Bimodal Structure Fabricated by Multi-Layer  Ac-Cumulative Roll Bonding". In this work, the authors used the bimodal Al-1vol% SiC composites were prepared by multi-layer accumulative roll bonding in this paper. Research was carried out using an optical microscope, scanning electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis was used to characterize the microstructure evolution of the composites while the mechanical properties were analyzed by tensile and microhardness tests.

The work presented for review is very interesting, deals with an interesting topic and fits well with the scope of the journal. The research methodology presented is good. The conclusions are rightly worded. The research results and their analysis are also adequately presented. Summing up, the reviewed work presents a very high substantive and experimental value. I have only one remark. Note the bibliography. In the literature there are only five publications from the last five years.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you very much for your valuable comments, which are definitely helpful to enhance the quality of our paper. Now we attempt to reply your comments. According to your comments, the parts revised are highlighted by the yellow color and the newly added part are highlighted by the red color in the revised manuscript. The specific reply is as follows.

 

Point 1: The work presented for review is very interesting, deals with an interesting topic and fits well with the scope of the journal. The research methodology presented is good. The conclusions are rightly worded. The research results and their analysis are also adequately presented. Summing up, the reviewed work presents a very high substantive and experimental value. I have only one remark. Note the bibliography. In the literature there are only five publications from the last five years.

 

Response 1: Thank you very much for your recognition and affirmation of this article. Your comments are the greatest encouragement to our research. We hope that this article can be published successfully with your help and review. In response to your valuable suggestion, we have revised the following references:

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript could be accepted

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript was significantly improved