Strength and Conductivity of Deformed Cu-Fe Composites after Solidified with a Horizontal Magnetic Field

In this paper, the Cu-Fe alloys are fabricated by solidifying with and without a 1.0 Tesla horizontal magnetic field and they are drawn to composite wires under different drawing ratios, then their further strength and conductivity are investigated. The results show that, when the drawing ratio is lower, the strength of the Cu-Fe composites pre-solidified with a horizontal magnetic field is lower, which is caused by the coarser solidification microstructures induced by the injected magnetic field. However, the increase ratio in the strength of the Cu-Fe composites, which is plotted as a function of the Fe content and the drawing ratio, is higher in the case of the imposed magnetic field. It indicates that it is more efficient applying the magnetic field to fabricate Cu-Fe composites with high Fe contents and larger drawing ratio. A quantitative relationship is fitted to predict the influence of the Fe content on the strength of the Cu-Fe composites wires. On the other hand, the conductivity of the Cu-Fe composite wires is decreased with increasing Fe content. The injected magnetic field has no effect on the conductivity.