Visiting Fellowship for Professor Matthew Krane: The Interaction of Solidification and Infiltration in Metal Matrix Composite Processing

将颗粒或纤维形式的陶瓷与金属混合，为材料工程师提供了另一类材料，并扩大了它们的设计范围。这些材料被称为金属基复合材料(MMC)。MMC的最终性能受陶瓷的性能、基质以及两者之间的界面的影响。这一简短的工作计划将调查陶瓷颗粒在制造阶段对金属基质的结构和性能的影响。陶瓷颗粒预制件将在受控条件下渗透铝合金或镍基高温合金。对于铝合金，这意味着使用预制件的受控上坡灌装和浸渍。对于高温合金来说，这意味着在单晶炉中控制温度梯度和凝固速度。铝和镍基材料的微观结构都将被表征，并与加工条件相关。这项新工作将与一些以前未发表的关于纤维增强铝基金属基复合材料微观结构变化的工作进行比较。这项工作的最终结果将是影响使用元胞自动机方法在工艺建模代码中对微结构进行建模的技术的发展。

Mixing ceramics in the form of particulate or fibres with metals gives the materials' engineer another class of materials and expands their design envelope. These materials are known as Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs). The final properties of the MMCs are influenced by the properties of the ceramic, the matrix and the interface between the two. This short programme of work will investigate the influence that the ceramic particles have on the structure, and therefore properties, of the metal matrix during the manufacturing stage.Ceramic particulate performs will be infiltrated with either an aluminium alloy or a Ni-based superalloy under controlled conditions. For the aluminium alloy this means using controlled uphill filling and impregnation of the perform. For the superalloy this means controlling temperature gradient and solidification rate in a single crystal furnace. Both aluminium and nickel-based materials microstructures will be characterised and related back to the processing conditions.This new work will be compared with some previously unpublished work on the change of microstructures observed in fibre reinforced aluminium based MMCs. The final outcome of the work will be to influence the development of techniques for modelling microstructures in process modelling codes using the cellular automaton method.