Cyclic plastic behavior of unidirectional SiC fibre-reinforced copper composites under uniaxial loads: An experimental and computational study

Abstract

Silicon carbide continuous fiber-reinforced copper matrix composites (Cu/SiC f ) offer huge potential as heat sink material for high-heat-flux applications at elevated temperatures (>300 °C) owing to the beneficial combination of strong, stiff and refractory SiC fibers with a highly conductive and ductile copper matrix. As high-heat-flux components are normally subjected to large temperature fluctuations combined with thermal strain variations, degradation of the Cu/SiC f composites caused by fatigue damages under cyclic loads may affect the structural integrity of the component. In this study, the robustness of the Cu/SiC f composites under cyclic loads at different temperatures was evaluated by means of uniaxial cyclic loading tests.The stability of the cyclic deformation hysteresis curves was used as a measure of material's durability. The experimentally observed global deformation behavior was interpreted with the help of a micromechanics-based theoretical model. It was shown that the Mori-Tanaka type mean field theory could describe the cyclic loading behavior of the composite quite well with a good fitting quality between the measured and simulated saturated cyclic curves. The effects of fiber content, applied strain range and test temperature are discussed.

Homogenization and Localization of Ratcheting Behavior of Composite Materials and Structures with the Thermal Residual Stress Effect

“…Details of these works can be seen in the review papers by Ohno [11], Bari and Hassan [12], Chaboche [8], Kang [13], Sajjad [14] and Chen [15]. Meanwhile, experimental characterizations of the cyclic deformations of metal matrix composites have been conducted by researchers, cf., Zhang et al [16], Kang et al [17], Han et al [18] and Kimmig et al [19]. Compared with monotonic homogeneous metal materials, the properties of the metal matrix composites are decided by off-axis angles, volume fractions and array patterns.…”

Cyclic plasticity and creep-cyclic plasticity behaviours of the SiC/Ti-6242 particulate reinforced titanium matrix composites under thermo-mechanical loadings

“…Indeed, by combining metallic properties such as excellent ductility, toughness, formability and good thermal and electric conductivities, with ceramic characteristics, e.g., high hardness, strength, modulus, high-temperature durability and low thermal expansion, the structure is expected to exhibit a higher specific strength, specific stiffness, wear resistance, thermal stability and high-temperature durability compared to the corresponding monolithic matrix materials [3][4][5][6]. These superiorities make them potential candidates in the same way as CFMMCs for critical applications in the aerospace and automotive industries.…”