Fast synchrotron radiography was used to investigate ultrasonic cavitation bubble formation and their dynamics during liquid metal processing of Al-Cu metal matrix nano composites (MMNC) in comparison with conventional alloys. The experimental observations showed enhanced cavitation potential in MMNC melts, due to the presence of Al 2 O 3 nano particles which believed to be acting as heterogeneous nuclei for bubble formation. Quantitative image analysis demonstrates that the addition of nano particles increases melt agitation partially, while introducing higher flow velocity variations across the melt. This suggests that the presence of nano particles may substantially alter propensity for ultrasonic treatment effects during solidification processing of MMNCs.
Highlights• Fast X-ray imaging of ultrasound cavitation in Al-Cu metal matrix nano composite melts.• Nano particles significantly enhance the ultrasonic cavitation bubble formation potential.• Higher flow velocity variation across the melt with increased cavitation activity was found from the experimental observations.
Several types of carbon nanofibres (CNF) were coated with a uniform and dense copper layer by electroless copper deposition. The coated fibres were then sintered by two different methods, spark plasma sintering (SPS) and hot pressing (HP). The Cu coating thickness was varied so that different volume fraction of fibres was achieved in the produced composites. In some cases, the CNF were pre-coated with Cr for the improvement the Cu adhesion on CNF. The results show that the dispersion of the CNF into the Cu matrix is independent of the sintering method used. On the contrary, the dispersion is directly related to the efficiency of the Cu coating, which is tightly connected to the CNF type. Overall, strong variations of the thermal conductivity (TC) of the composites were observed (20-200 W/mK) as a function of CNF type, CNF volume fraction and Cr content, while the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) in all cases was found to be considerably lower than Cu (9.9-11.3 ppm/K). The results show a good potential for SPS to be used to process this type of materials, since the SPS samples show better properties than HP samples even though they have a higher porosity, in applications where moderate TC and low CTE are required.
Cu is a well known heat sink material due to its high thermal conductivity.However, its coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is high. One of the most promising solutions for reducing it is to reinforce copper with carbon nanofibres (CNF) because of their low CTE. To exploit the properties of the CNFs a good dispersion of the reinforcement within the matrix must be achieved. One of the processing methods used to obtain a homogeneous CNF distribution is coating the CNF with Cu using electrochemical deposition. In this paper, the effect of the carbon structure on electroless deposition technique is studied. Different CNF have been compared: herringbone (HB), platelet (PL) and longitudinally aligned (previously heat treated) (LAHT). Herringbone and Platelet CNF were heat treated at 2750ºC for 30' which resulted in a structure resembling graphite with loops at the fibre surface. These loops are responsible for an enhancement of the copper coating. It is shown that the Cu coverage in electroless deposition is high for the graphene plane and poor at the edges of the plane.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.