The Effect Of A Small Copper Addition On The Electrical Conductivity Of Aluminum (Vol 22, 2000058, 2020)

Aluminum powder blended with 10, 20, and 30 wt% of copper powder is compacted at 400 degrees C by four reciprocal extrusion passes. Simultaneous compaction and strengthening result in more than double increase in mechanical strength characteristics for 20 and 30 wt% of copper and a significant increase in electrical conductivity for 30 wt% of copper. This phenomenon is investigated here by the expansion of the "effective media" model for a random binary mixture so that it includes the presence of intermetallic phases and considers the distribution of large copper agglomerates.