Pracownicy

Streszczenie:
Lightweight materials with high wear resistance, good thermal conductivity and enhanced mechanical properties are desired for modern brake discs in the automotive industry. One way to achieve this target is to use functionally graded metal-ceramic composite materials (FGMs). Besides improving the main properties, an FGM must ensure proper thermal conductivity of the system to release heat generated during brake operation and keep the residual stresses at acceptable levels.
Two ceramic materials, SiC and Al2O3, were used as the reinforcing phase of the AlSi12 matrix composites fabricated by powder metallurgy with a stepwise composition gradient (layered composites). The hot-pressing technique was employed to consolidate the powder mixtures with the volume fraction of the ceramics phase ranging from 10 to 30%. High relative density of the composite layers (above 99%) was obtained. Fracture toughness and flexural strength in a four-point bending ranged from 8.7 to 12.94 MPa√m and from 412 to 717 MPa, respectively. In-situ tensile tests under SEM allowed to analyze deformation and crack growth mechanisms on the microscale. Wear tests evidenced high wear resistance of the manufactured materials as compared with the reference material (grey cast iron). Results of the neutron diffraction experiments showed a desired effect of the FGM structure on decreasing the processing-induced residual stresses.
In parallel, FEM simulations based on the actual material microstructure reconstructed from micro-CT images were performed for thermal conductivity and thermal residual stresses to optimize the FGM structure and to answer the question which reinforcement (SiC or Al2O3) better serves the intended application.