Threshold pressure and infiltration behavior of liquid metal into fibrous preform

A dynamic measuring apparatus was developed to investigate the infiltration process of liquid metal into the fibrous preform. 10% （volume fraction） chopped carbon fiber preforms were infiltrated with magnesium alloy under different infiltration pressures. The threshold pressure and flow behavior of liquid metal infiltrating into the preforms were calculated and measured. The microstructure of obtained Ct4Mg composites was observed. The results indicate that the measured threshold pressure for infiltration was 0.048 MPa, which was larger than the calculated value. The infiltration rate increased with the increase of infiltration pressure, but the increase amplitude decreased gradually. The tiny pores in the composites could be eliminated by increasing the infiltration pressure. When the infiltration pressure rose to 0.6 MPa, high quality C1/Mg composite was obtained.

Improved wettability and mechanical properties of metal coated carbon fiber-reinforced aluminum matrix composites by squeeze melt infiltration technique

In order to improve the wettability and bonding performance of the interface between carbon fiber and aluminum matrix,nickel-and copper-coated carbon fiber-reinforced aluminum matrix composites were fabricated by the squeeze melt infiltration technique.The interface wettability,microstructure and mechanical properties of the composites were compared and investigated.Compared with the uncoated fiber-reinforced aluminum matrix composite,the microstructure analysis indicated that the coatings significantly improved the wettability and effectively inhibited the interface reaction between carbon fiber and aluminum matrix during the process.Under the same processing condition,aluminum melt was easy to infiltrate into the copper-coated fiber bundles.Furthermore,the inhibited interface reaction was more conducive to maintain the original strength of fiber and improve the fiber−matrix interface bonding performance.The mechanical properties were evaluated by uniaxial tensile test.The yield strength,ultimate tensile strength and elastic modulus of the copper-coated carbon fiber-reinforced aluminum matrix composite were about 124 MPa,140 MPa and 82 GPa,respectively.In the case of nickel-coated carbon fiber-reinforced aluminum matrix composite,the yield strength,ultimate tensile strength and elastic modulus were about 60 MPa,70 MPa and 79 GPa,respectively.The excellent mechanical properties for copper-coated fiber-reinforced composites are attributed to better compactness of the matrix and better fiber−matrix interface bonding,which favor the load transfer ability from aluminam matrix to carbon fiber under the loading state,giving full play to the bearing role of carbon fiber.

Thermal conductivity of carbon nanotube-silver composite

The molecular level mixing method was extended to fabricate carbon nanotube reinforced silver composite. The influence of type of carbon nanotubes（single/multiwall） reinforcement and their mode of functionalization（covalent/non-covalent） on thermal conductivity of silver composite was investigated. X-ray diffraction and electron diffraction spectroscopy（EDS） confirm the presence of silver and carbon in the composite powder. High resolution scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy ascertain embedded, anchored and homogeneously implanted carbon nanotubes in silver matrix. Effect of covalent functionalization on multiwall carbon nanotubes was monitored by Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. These investigations confirm the addition of functional groups and structural integrity of carbon nanotubes even after covalent functionalization. Thermal conductivity of composites was measured by a laser flash technique and theoretically analyzed using an effective medium approach. The experimental results reveal that thermal conductivity decreases after incorporation of covalently functionalized multiwall nanotubes and single wall carbon nanotubes. However, non-covalently functionalized multiwall nanotube reinforcement leads to the increase in effective thermal conductivity of the composite and is in agreement with theoretical predictions derived from effective medium theory, in absence of interfacial thermal resistance.

Role of friction stir welding parameters on tensile strength of AA6061-B_4C composite joints

Friction stir welding（FSW） is a solid state joining technique developed to join high strength aluminum alloys and various ceramic reinforced metal matrix composites（MMCs）.FSW produces sound welds in MMCs without any deleterious reaction between reinforcement and matrix.The present work focused on the effect of FSW parameters on the tensile strength of Al-B4C composite joints.The central composite design of four factors and five levels was used to control the number of experiments.A mathematical model was developed to analyze the influence of FSW parameters.The results indicated that the joint fabricated using rotational speed of 1000 r/min,welding speed of 1.3 mm/s,axial force of 10 kN and the reinforcement of 12% showed larger tensile strength compared with the other joints.The developed model was optimized to maximize the tensile strength using generalized reduced gradient method.The metallographic analysis of the joints showed the presence of various zones such as weld nugget（WN） zone,thermo mechanically affected zone（TMAZ） and heat affected zone（HAZ）.The substantial grain refinement of aluminum matrix as well as significant size reduction of B4C particles was observed in the weld nugget.TMAZ was plastically deformed,thermally affected and exhibited elongated aluminum grains.

Fabrication of cast carbon steel with ultrafine TiC particles

The carbon steels dispersed with ultrafine TiC particles were fabricated by conventional casting method. The casting process is more economical than other available routes for metal matrix composite production, and the large sized components to be fabricated in short processing time. However, it is extremely difficult to obtain uniform dispersion of ultrafine ceramic particles in liquid metals due to the poor wettability and the specific gravity difference between the ceramic particle and metal matrix. In order to solve these problems, the mechanical milling (MM) and surface-active processes were introduced. As a result, Cu coated ultrafine TiC powders made by MM process using high energy ball milling machine were mixed with Sn powders as a surfactant to get better wettability by lowering the surface tension of carbon steel melt. The microstructural investigations by OM show that ultrafine TiC particles are distributed uniformly in carbon steel matrix. The grain sizes of the cast matrix with ultrafine TiC particles are much smaller than those without ultrafine TiC particles. This is probably due to the fact that TiC particles act as nucleation sites during solidification. The wear resistance of cast carbon steel composites added with MMed TiC/Cu-Sn powders is improved due to grain size refinement.

Processing, characterization, room temperature mechanical properties and fracture behavior of hot extruded multi-scale B_4C reinforced 5083 aluminum alloy based composites

Microstructural characteristics and mechanical behavior of hot extruded Al5083/B4C nanocomposites were studied.Al5083and Al5083/B4C powders were milled for50h under argon atmosphere in attrition mill with rotational speed of400r/min.For increasing the elongation,milled powders were mixed with30%and50%unmilled aluminum powder(mass fraction)with meanparticle size of>100μm and<100μm and then consolidated by hot pressing and hot extrusion with9:1extrusion ratio.Hot extrudedsamples were studied by optical microscopy,scanning electron microscopy(SEM),energy dispersive spectroscopy(EDS),transmission electron microscopy(TEM),tensile and hardness tests.The results showed that mechanical milling process andpresence of B4C particles increase the yield strength of Al5083alloy from130to566MPa but strongly decrease elongation(from11.3%to0.49%).Adding<100μm unmilled particles enhanced the ductility and reduced tensile strength and hardness,but usingthe>100μm unmilled particles reduced the tensile strength and ductility at the same time.By increasing the content of unmilledparticles failure mechanism changed from brittle to ductile.