Investigations of residual stresses in carbon fibre/aluminium-composites using X-ray diffraction

Investigations of residual stresses have been carried out on unidirectionally carbon fibre reinforced aluminium using X-ray diffraction. It was found that the carbon exists in compression parallel to the fibre axis and in tension perpendicular to the fibre axis after the fabrication of the MMCs by a liquid infiltration process. Furthermore, it was observed that the intermetallic phase Al₃Ni was in tension (+ 100 MPa) parallel to the fibre axis and in considerable residual compression (– 400 MPa) perpendicular to the fibre axis.