Temperature effects of aluminum melt during the infiltration process into porous graphite matrix

Abstract

Aluminum/graphite composites are receiving much attention due to the unique features and diverse possibilities in different fields. Generally, the aluminum melt into the inner pores of the graphite matrix requires an ambient prompting with high temperature and gas pressure. The infiltration dynamics of aluminum melt, which highly depends on the ambient temperature, would have a significant effect on the final composite’s performance. In this work, we have studied the temperature effect of aluminum melt during the infiltration process into the porous graphite matrix based on numerical simulation and experimental verification. Results show that the moderate temperature increase would effectively promote the infiltration of aluminum melt, achieving a higher filling rate with a shorter filling time. However, the promotion effects of the temperature increase would come to a certain limit due to the opposing effects of capillary porous and residual gas. The detailed influences of the temperature on the infiltration would be presented, and the final composite performance, including mechanical strength and thermal management capability, would be examined and discussed.