A STUDY ON THE INTERFACE BETWEEN GRAPHITE AND ALUMINIUM ALLOY

Abstract

Aluminium alloy composite materials reinforced with graphite fibre have received broad attention because of their high strength to weight ratio and their potential for economical fabrication by liquid metal infiltration of fibre performs. The mechanical properties of the composites viz, fracture strength, tensile strength, fatigue strength and the crack growth behaviour etc. are determined comprehensively by the characteristics of matrix, reinforcement and interface. Interface is often considered the most critical parameter of all three. On one hand a moderate interfacial reaction improves the interfacial compatibility and ameliorates the mechanical properties of the composite whereas an over reaction at the interface has the opposite effect. So, it is very important to understand well the nature of the reaction occurring at the interface and, hence, to control the interface reaction in the composites if the full potential of graphite - aluminum as a structural materials is to be realized. In the present work interface between aluminum alloy containing different alloying elemetns viz. Cu, Zr, and Li are prepared with graphite at different temperatures. The prepared interfaces are studied and analysed and microhardness is determined across the interface, The problem under investigation has been introduced in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 is the critical review of the literature for the interface of aluminium and silicon carbide, aluminium and alumina and aluminium and carbon/graphite. Chapter 3 deals with the experimental procedure and chapter 4 is for the results and discussion for all the experiments. Chapter 5 is the concluding chapter whereas suggestions for future work is given in chapter 6