Numerical and Experimental Characterization of Elastic Properties of a Novel, Highly Homogeneous Interpenetrating Metal Ceramic Composite

An interpenetrating aluminum-alumina composite is presented, based on a ceramic foam manufactured via a novel slurry-based route resulting in a highly homogeneous preform microstructure in contrast to other preform techniques. The metal matrix composite (MMC) is produced by infiltrating the open-porous ceramic preform with molten aluminum at 700 degrees C using a Argon-driven gas pressure infiltration process. The resulting MMC and the primary ceramic foam are investigated both numerically and experimentally in terms of microstructural characteristics. In addition, the mechanical behavior of the material as well as the structural and material interactions on the microscale are investigated. To characterize the MMC regarding mechanical isotropy, elastic properties are determined experimentally via ultrasonic phase spectroscopy (UPS). A fast Fourier transform (FFT) formulation is used to simulate the complex 3D microstructure with reasonable effort based on image-data gathered from high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans of the ceramic foam as computational grid. Simulations prove that the material properties are, indeed, considered as highly homogeneous with respect to the material microstructure. A comparison with effective experimental investigations confirms these findings.