Elasto-Plastic Mechanical Properties and Failure Mechanism of Innovative Ti-(SiCf/Al3Ti) Laminated Composites for Sphere-Plane Contact at the Early Stage of Penetration Process

Abstract

A novel silicon carbide (SiC) continuous ceramic fiber-reinforced (CCFR) Ti/Al3Ti Metal-Intermetallic-Laminate (MIL) composite was fabricated. A high-efficiency semi-analytical model was proposed based on the numerical equivalent inclusion method (NEIM) for analyzing the small-strain elasto-plastic contact in the early stage of the penetration process. The microstructure and interface features were characterized by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Quasi-static compression tests were performed to determine the contact response and validate the proposed model. A group of in-depth parametric studies were carried out to quantify the influence of the microstructure. The comparison between results under the sphere-plane and plane-plane contact load indicates that, under the first sphere-plane, the compressive strength and failure strain are both lower and the SiC reinforcement effect on strength is very clear while the effect on ductility is not clear. The maximum plastic strain concentration (MPSC) in the Al3Ti layer is closest to the upper boundary of the central SiC fiber and then extends along the depth direction as the load increases, which are also the locations where cracks may initiate and extend. Moreover, the CCFR-MIL composite shows better mechanical properties when the center distance between adjacent SiC fibers is four times the fiber diameter and the volume fraction of Ti is 40%.

Numerical Simulation for Elasto-Plastic Contact of Novel Ti-(SiCf/Al3Ti)-Laminated Composite with Double-Layered SiC Fiber Reinforcements

“…The entire calculation zone, including both the inhomogeneities and matrix materials, is discretized into Nx × Ny × Nz cubic elements. The element at the top left corner of the half space in Figure 3a [29] is magnified to display the definition of an element by its edges, a1, a2, and a3. A concentrated loading force, W, is applied on a spherical rigid indenter whose radius is R. The material properties of each element are assigned according to the core location, whether in the inhomogeneities or the matrix.…”

“…Numerical EIM The efficiency of the unimproved SAM model with NEIM has been validated with the FEM model in our previous work [29]. Owing to the utilization of 3D discrete convolution and the fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm during the solving process, the computational efficiency of the new numerical method is further increased.…”

Ballistic limit velocity of tungsten alloy spherical fragment penetrating Ti/Al3Ti-laminated composite target plates

“…2 In the past 20 years, scholars had conducted a lot of studies on the preparation methods and mechanical properties of Ti/Al 3 Ti-laminated composites. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] However, the research on the ballistic performance of Ti/Al 3 Ti-laminated composites are still relatively limited. Zelepugin and Zelepugin 16 used the finite element simulation and experimental method to study the failure processes of multilayer composites under dynamic loading, finding that the depth of penetration depended on the thicknesses of intermetallic and titanium alloy layers, where the composite target withstood the impact loading in the case of the mass ratio of nearly 4:1 (Al 3 Ti/Ti).…”

Ceramic-Reinforced γ-TiAl-Based Composites: Synthesis, Structure, and Properties

“…These materials typically consist of various similar and dissimilar metals and intermetallic compounds [ 28 , 29 , 30 ]. Complex composite structures containing metallic and intermetallic layers with ceramic particles and fibers have also been recently developed [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. Multilayered materials possess a unique combination of mechanical properties.…”