A study on damage evolution in Cu-TiO2 composite fabricated using powder metallurgy followed by hot extrusion

In this paper, damage evolution of Copper/Titanium Dioxide, fabricated by powder metallurgy, based on Young modulus reduction is investigated. The Cu matrix is reinforced by different volume fraction of TiO2 nano and micro particles using mechanical milling, cold pressing at different loading rates (Quasi-Static, Drop Hammer, Split Hopkinson Bar), and hot extrusion process. The composite tensile test specimens were produced using powder metallurgy (cold pressing) followed by hot extrusion. The effects of the strain rate and the reinforcing particles size on damage evolution of Cu reinforced by 0, 2.5 and 5% volume fractions of nano-and micro-sized TiO2 were investigated. The results showed that the Quasi-Static method was more efficient than the other two methods. In addition, the experimental results showed that strain rate, plastic strain, fracture strain, volume fraction of reinforcement particles and particles aspect ratio were effective on damage evolution. Finally, these effective parameters were incorporated into a new model proposed to predict the damage evolution of Metal Matrix Composite (MMC). The model was validated by experimental results.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the damage evolution of Copper/Titanium Dioxide composite, fabricated by powder metallurgy, based on Young modulus reduction. Different volume fractions of TiO2 nano and micro particles were used to reinforce the Cu matrix using mechanical milling, cold pressing at different loading rates, and hot extrusion process. The effects of strain rate and particle size on damage evolution were studied. The results showed that the Quasi-Static method was more efficient and several parameters such as strain rate, plastic strain, fracture strain, volume fraction of reinforcement particles, and particles aspect ratio were found to affect the damage evolution. A new model was proposed to predict the damage evolution of Metal Matrix Composite (MMC) and validated with experimental results.