Improved method to simulate gradient in alumina packing fraction in alumina/epoxy composite fabricated by a centrifugal method

Abstract

A centrifugal method was used to fabricate large‐scale functionally graded materials (FGMs) from solid‐particles/viscous‐matrix mixtures at room temperature. The conventional simulation procedure of the centrifugal process was improved by considering the dependency of the viscosity η of the mixture on the packing fraction νp of particle, the effects of arbitrary shape of the actual fillers on η, the statistical dispersion of the diameters of the actual fillers, and the formation and growth of the fully packed layer (FPL) near the FGM bottom. The new simulation method was applied to three centrifugal processes employed for experimental FGM fabrications from alumina/epoxy mixtures. The numerical profiles of νp are in good agreement with the experimental ones regardless of the shapes of fillers and 'ponding viscosity of the solutions without fillers, the total amount of fillers loaded, and the centrifugal conditions. The saturating nature of νp near the far end of the FGM column is also simulated with reasonable precision. Finally, the manner in which the particles exert varying influences on the gradient of νp is demonstrated: the particles exhibit different movements depending on their size. On the basis of these results, the effectiveness of the new simulation method proposed is confirmed for the modeling of similar processes involved in the fabrication of FGMs from solid‐particles/viscous‐matrix mixtures by the centrifugal method. © 2006 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.