Funding body: National Science Centre (NCN)
Start date: 1 Sep. 2020; duration 36 months
NCN (OPUS 18) contribution: PLN
Research objectives/ hypotheses
Functionally graded metal-ceramic materials (FGMs) have been a subject of intensive research both in materials science and mechanics for several decades now.
Since the properties of FGMs vary spatially, they belong to the category of inhomogeneous solids. The concept of spatially varying volume fractions of metal and ceramic phases of a composite to obtain a gradual change of the macroscopic material properties is extremely appealing from the application point of view. Aluminum-matrix composites (AMCs) are one of the most intensively studied metal-ceramic composite systems because of their good mechanical and thermal properties, high durability, low density and low cost of individual components.
The scientific goal of the ALU-FGM project is to study the influence of the microstructure of gradient composites with an aluminum matrix reinforced with particles of (i) aluminum oxide and (ii) silicon carbide on the residual thermal stresses arising in the phases of ceramics and metal during the production process of these composites and their selected thermal and mechanical properties . To achieve the goal of the project, experimental methods and numerical modeling with the use of tomographic images of the structure of the tested materials will be used. Two gradient composites based on AlSi12 alloy matrix, reinforced with Al2O3 and SiC ceramic particles, consisting of four layers with different proportions of AlSi12 content and ceramic reinforcement (the so-called step gradient) were selected for the tests