Aluminium alloys, reinforced with ceramic particles or fibres, are desired materials in
high performance applications due to their superior properties. Amongst aluminium
matrix composites, interpenetrating composites, with both the matrix and
reinforcement three dimensional throughout the microstructure, are more promising in
providing truly multi-functional properties. However, due to the poor wetting between
most metals and ceramics, pressure is normally needed in processing. In this research,
a pressureless infiltration technique was adopted, which has the advantage of offering
complex shape capability, no risk of damaging the ceramic skeleton and is potentially
cost-effective and suitable for commercialization. The aims were to produce Al alloy/Al2O3 interpenetrating composites using the pressureless infiltration technique; to
optimize the processing for full infiltration; to understand the infiltration mechanism
and to characterise the composites in terms of both their microstructure and
mechanical properties. [Continues.]
Funding
EPSRC. ORSAS. Dytech Corporation UK Ltd.
History
School
Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Publication date
2008
Notes
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy at Loughborough University.