Metal matrix composite solidification in the presence of cooled fibers: numerical simulation and experimental observation

Attempts have been made to alter the solidification microstructures of fiber reinforced aluminum composites by cooling the ends of the fibers extending out of the mold. Experimental observations indicate that cooling the extended ends of the reinforcement results in finer microstructures in the matrix and changes the nature of the interface. In this paper, numerical simulation is performed on a two-dimensional axi-symmetric model to investigate the solidification process of metal matrix composite (MMC) with the extended ends of the fibers cooled by a heat sink. The numerical simulation is based on the source-based enthalpy method with finite volume discretization. The temperature profiles obtained by simulation are compared to the cooling curves measured experimentally in order to validate the current mathematical model. It is found that the simulation result matches the experimental data with reasonable agreement.     

Numerical simulation and experimental study of solidification of squeeze cast aluminum composites in the presence of cooled fibers

In order to improve the material properties of fiber-reinforced aluminum composites, experimental research has been carried out to create finer matrix microstructures and novel interfaces between aluminum matrix (A2014) and carbon fibers using a modified pressure infiltration technique. In this novel process the ends of the fibers extending outside the mold are cooled by using a variety of heat sinks. Solidification microstructures show that the dendrite arm spacing in between and around the fibers are much finer than in the region where there are no fibers. This suggests the possibility of refining the matrix microstructures by cooling the fibers extending out of the mold. A numerical simulation is also performed to study the solidification process of aluminum matrix by finite volume method. The cooling curves obtained by the simulation are compared with the experimentally measured cooling curves in order to validate the numerical model. It is found that the simulation result closely matches the experimentally obtained data.     

Debonding of short fibres among particulates in a metal matrix composite

A numerical analysis is carried out for the development of damage by fibre–matrix debonding in aluminium reinforced by aligned, short SiC fibres. A unit cell-model that has earlier been applied to study materials with arrays of transversely staggered fibres is here extended to contain a number of differently shaped fibres or particulates in each unit cell, thus representing debonding of a relatively long discontinuous fibre among particulates that do not debond. Interfacial failure is modelled in terms of a cohesive zone model that accounts for decohesion by normal separation as well as by tangential separation. It is found that the evolution of failure can depend rather strongly on the distribution of particulates around a fibre subject to debonding.     

Inward solidification of a superheated liquid in a cooled horizontal tube

Inward solidification has been studied experimentally and analytically under conditions where the liquid phase is above the fusion temperature (i.e., superheated). The liquid was housed in a horizontal circular tube in which the surface was maintained at a uniform, time-invariant temperature during test runs. Three phase change materials (n-heptadecane,n-octadecane, and water) were used in the tests. Both analysis and experiments have established that for inward solidification, natural convection in a superheated liquid is not important in controlling the solidliquid interface motion for Stefan numbers less than unity. The interface velocity is determined primarily by the thermal resistance across the solid layer. Good agreement has been obtained between experimentally measured and analytically predicted solid-liquid interface positions when the density differences between the phases were accounted for.     

Nonlocal plasticity effects on the tensile properties of a metal matrix composite

For a metal reinforced by aligned short fibres the effect of a material length scale characterising the inelastic deformations of the metal is studied. The elastic-plastic constitutive relations used here to represent the nonlocal effects are formulated so that the instantaneous hardening moduli depend on the gradient of the effective plastic strain. Numerical cell-model analyses are used to obtain a parametric understanding of the influence of different combinations of the main material parameters. The analyses show a strong dependence on the fibre diameter for given values of all other material parameters, and it is shown that this dependence differs somewhat for different values of the fibre aspect ratio.     

Deformation of a fibrous composite with physically nonlinear fibers and microdamageable matrix

The structural theory of short-term microdamage is generalized to a fibrous composite with a microdamageable matrix and physically nonlinear fibers. The basis for the generalization is the stochastic elasticity equations of a fibrous composite with a porous matrix. Microvolumes in the matrix material meet the Huber-Mises failure criterion. The damaged-microvolume balance equation for the matrix is derived. This equation and the equations relating macrostresses and macrostrains of a fibrous composite with porous matrix and physically nonlinear fibers constitute a closed-form system of equations. This system describes the coupled processes of physically nonlinear deformation and microdamage occurring in different components of the composite. Algorithms for computing the microdamage-macrostrain and macrostress-macrostrain relationships are developed. Uniaxial tension curves are plotted for a fibrous composite with linearly hardening fibers __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 38–47, January 2006.     

Strain gradient effects on microscopic strain field in a metal matrix composite

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the improved modeling accuracy of a finite-deformation strain gradient crystal plasticity formulation over its classical counterpart by conducting a joint experimental and numerical investigation of the microscopic details of the deformation of a whisker-reinforced metal-matrix composite. The lattice rotation distribution around whiskers is obtained in thin foils using a TEM technique and is then correlated with numerical predictions based on finite element analyses of a unit-cell of a single crystal matrix containing a rigid whisker. The matrix material is first characterized by a classical, scale-independent crystal plasticity theory. It is found that the classical theory predicts a lattice rotation distribution with a spatial gradient much higher than experimentally measured. A strain gradient crystal plasticity formulation is then applied to model the matrix. The strain gradient formulation accounts for both strain hardening and strain gradient hardening. The deformation thus predicted exhibits a strong dependence on the size of the whisker. For a constitutive length scale comparable to the whisker diameter, the spatial gradient of the lattice rotation is several times lower than that predicted by the classical theory, and hence correlates significantly better with the experimental results.     

Residual strength of a fiber reinforced metal matrix composite with a crack

The residual strength of a cracked unidirectional fiver reinforced metal matrix composite is studied. We propose a bridging model based on the Dugdale strip yielding zones in the matrix ahead of the crack tips that accounts for ductile deformations of the matrix and fiber debonding and pull-out in the strip yielding zone. The bridging model is used to study the fracture of an anisotropic material and its residual strength is calculated numerically. The predicted results for a SiC/titanium composite agree well with the existing experimental data. It is found that a higher fiber bridging stress and a larger fiber pull-out length significantly contribute to the composite's residual strength. The composite's strength may be more notch-insensitive than the corresponding matrix material's strength depending on several factors such as fiber-matrix interface properties and the ratio of the matrix modulus to an ‘effective modulus’ of the composite.     

Combined free and forced convection flow in a cooled vertical duct with internal solidification

The effect of mixed convection flow on the shape of the frozen crust in a cooled vertical channel was investigated numerically. For the prediction of the ice-layer thickness a simple numerical model which is based on the boundary layer equations was used. It can be seen that in case of assisting mixed convection flow the heat transfer at the solid crust increases because of inreasing velocity near the solid-liquid interface. On the other hand this increase of the velocity near the solid-liquid interface can lead to flow separation in the core region of the channel because of continuity of mass. By comparing the numerically obtained results for aiding mixed flow with measurements of Campbell and Incropera [10] good agreement can be observed. In case of opposing mixed flow it can be shown that flow separation might occur near the solid-liquid interface. This can result in a wave-like structure of the ice-layer.     

Effective characteristics of composite media bonded by fibers with the presence of thin interphasal structures taken into account

International Applied Mechanics -     

Effective elastic shear stiffness of a periodic fibrous composite with non-uniform imperfect contact between the matrix and the fibers

In this contribution, effective elastic moduli are obtained by means of the asymptotic homogenization method, for oblique two-phase fibrous periodic composites with non-uniform imperfect contact conditions at the interface. This work is an extension of previous reported results, where only the perfect contact for elastic or piezoelectric composites under imperfect spring model was considered. The constituents of the composites exhibit transversely isotropic properties. A doubly periodic parallelogram array of cylindrical inclusions under longitudinal shear is considered. The behavior of the shear elastic coefficient for different geometry arrays related to the angle of the cell is studied. As validation of the present method, some numerical examples and comparisons with theoretical results verified that the present model is efficient for the analysis of composites with presence of imperfect interface and parallelogram cell. The effect of the non uniform imperfection on the shear effective property is observed. The present method can provide benchmark results for other numerical and approximate methods.     

Surface instability of two fibers in a matrix

Institute of Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev. Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 26, No. 8, pp. 30–36, August, 1990.     

Numerical investigations of drop solidification on a cold plate in the presence of volume change

We present a front-tracking/finite difference method for simulation of drop solidification on a cold plate. The problem includes temporal evolution of three interfaces, i.e. solid–liquid, solid–gas, and liquid–gas, that are explicitly tracked under the assumption of axisymmetry. Method validation is carried out by comparing computational results with exact solutions for a two-dimensional Stefan problem, and with related experiments. We then use the method to investigate a drop solidifying on a cold plate in which there exists volume change due to density difference between the solid and liquid phases. Numerical results show that the shape of the solidified drop is profoundly different from the initial liquid one due to the effects of volume change and the tri-junction in terms of growth angles ϕ_gr on the solidification process. A decrease in the density ratio of solid to liquid ρ_sl or an increase in the growth angle results in an increase in the height of the solidified drop. The solidification process is also affected by the Stefan number St, the Bond number Bo, the Prandtl number Pr, the Weber number We, the ratios of the thermal properties of the solid to liquid phases k_sl and C_psl. Increasing St, Bo, Pr, We, or k_sl decreases the solidified drop height and the time to complete solidification. Moreover, the solidification growth rate is strongly affected by St, k_sl and C_psl. An increase in any of these parameters hastens the growth rate of the solidification interface. Contrarily, increasing ρ_sl decreases the growth rate. However, other parameters such as ϕ_gr, Bo, Pr and We have minor effects on the solidification growth rate.     

A thermomechanical model for the analysis of light alloy solidification in a composite mould

A coupled thermomechanical model to simulate light alloy solidification problems in permanent composite moulds is presented. This model is based on a general isotropic thermoelasto-plasticity theory and considers the different thermomechanical behaviours of each component of the mould as well as those of the solidifying material during its evolution from liquid to solid. To this end, plastic evolution equations, a phase-change variable and a specific free energy function are proposed in order to derive temperature-dependent material constitutive laws.The corresponding finite element formulation and the staggered scheme used to solve the coupled non-linear system of equations are also presented. Finally, the temperature and displacement predictions of the model are validated with laboratory measurements obtained during an experimental trial.     

A mathematical model for an alloy solidification problem in the presence of an electric field

A one-dimensional mathematical model for a process of solidification of a binary alloy in the presence of an electric field is studied. A situation in which the thermal properties of each phase are different and the latent heat is non-zero is considered. A quasi-static approximation for the thermal and electric fields is used. Local existence and uniqueness of a classical solution to the resulting free boundary problem are proved for two kinds of boundary conditions. Moreover, under particular hypotheses, the monotonicity of the free boundary and the global existence of the solution is proved.

---

Sommario Si studia un modello matematico unidimensionale per un processo di solidificazione di una lega binaria in presenza di un campo elettrico. Si considera una situazione in cui le proprietà termiche di ogni fase sono differenti e il calore latente è non nullo. Si usa una approssimazione quasi-statica per i campi elettrico e termico. Si dimostra l'esistenza locale e l'unicità di una soluzione classica per il problema di frontiera libera risultante con due tipi di condizioni di bordo. Inoltre si dimostra, sotto particolari ipotesi, la monotonia della frontiera libera e l'esistenza di soluzione globale.