Fabrication of carbon fibre-reinforced aluminium composites with hybridization of a small amount of particulates or whiskers of silicon carbide by pressure casting

Abstract

An investigation was carried out on the fabrication of carbon fibre-reinforced aluminium matrix composites with hybridization of particulates or whiskers of silicon carbide by pressure casting. A small amount of particulates or whiskers was uniformly distributed among carbon fibres and the preforms prepared from the treated fibres were directly infiltrated by molten aluminium under applied stress. It was found that the longitudinal tensile strengths of hybrid composites were greatly improved, although their fibre volume fractions were very low compared to those of conventional composites. With this hybridization method, it is also practical to tailor the fibre volume fraction of composites from 60 to 25 vol %, which is not possible in direct infiltration of fibre preforms by pressure casting. The results obtained lead to the conclusion that particulate or whisker additions act not directly as reinforcements but as promoters to improve the infiltration performances of fibre preforms, and consequently to increase the strength-transfer efficiency of carbon fibres. The addition of particulates or whiskers can also improve other properties of the composites, such as hardness and wear resistance.