Fatigue Behavior and Lifetime Prediction of Unidirectionally Wire Reinforced Lightweight Metal Matrix Composites

Abstract

In the field of lightweight construction for transportation means, hybrid structures composed of highstrength and low-density materials exhibit a high potential for application. The composite extrusion process allows an easy embedding of metallic reinforcements into a multitude of light metal alloys. The current work shows that different metallic wire reinforced light alloys with a content of 11.1 vol% lead to a significant increase in lifetime of different aluminum and magnesium alloys under fully reversed stress controlled fatigue loading. Based on the knowledge of the quasi-static behavior of the single components and the fatigue behavior of the matrix material, a new lifetime model is used to predict the lifetime for different unidirectionally reinforced material systems.