Improving Mechanical, Thermal and Damping Properties of NiTi (Nitinol) Reinforced Aluminum Nanocomposites

Abstract

In the present study, Ni50Ti50 (NiTi) particle reinforced aluminum nanocomposites were fabricated using microwave sintering and subsequently hot extrusion. The effect of NiTi (0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 vol %) content on the microstructural, mechanical, thermal, and damping properties of the extruded Al-NiTi nanocomposites was studied. Compared to the unreinforced aluminum, hardness, ultimate compression/tensile strength and yield strength increased by 105%, 46%, 45%, and 41% while elongation and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) decreased by 49% and 22%, respectively. The fabricated Al-1.5 NiTi nanocomposite exhibited significantly higher damping capacity (3.23 × 10−4) and elastic modulus (78.48 ± 0.008 GPa) when compared to pure Al.

Microstructure and Mechanical Behavior of Hot Extruded Aluminum/Tin-Bismuth Composites Produced by Powder Metallurgy

“…These inviting properties make them attractive for a wide variety of applications. Recently, the application of AMMCs has surged in the above-mentioned sectors, which require high AMMCs have been developed using various reinforcements, such as alumina (Al2O3) [15], silicon carbide (SiC) [16], boron nitride (BN) [17], titanium carbide (TiC) [18], silicon nitride (Si3N4) [19], boron carbide (B4C) [20], Al-Cu-Li [21], nitinol (NiTi) [22], aluminum nitride (AlN) [23], zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) [24], cerium dioxide (CeO2) [25], and titanium dioxide (TiO2) [26], that have shown distinctive contributions in enhancing the structural, thermal, damping, mechanical, and corrosion properties of AMMCs [27,28]. However, there are some limitations in choosing the type of preparation method.…”

“…Among these, powder metallurgy (PM) is a simple and cost-effective synthesis technique and provides better results when compared to other processes [34]. Furthermore, PM along with hybrid microwave sintering (HMWS) is suitable for the development of Al-based composites, because it can control the growth in particle size and the changes in microstructure and the volume fraction between the reinforcement and matrix [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Our research group has reinforced Al2O3, TiC, Si3N4, B4C, BN, and SiC successfully to develop Al-based nanocomposites through the PM technique along with HMWS process.…”

Structural analysis, mechanical and damping behaviour of Al-Zn based composites reinforced with Cu and SiC particles

“…This indicates that the substitution of SiC with same wt.% Cu as reinforcement does not results in adverse reduction in hardness of the Al-Zn composites. The mechanism of hardening on account of increase in the wt.% Cu can be linked to increase in particle hardening effect, considering that Cu is harder than Al-Zn alloy [14,22]. Furthermore, increase in both direct and indirect strengthening due to both load transfer phenomenon and dislocation generated due to difference in thermal coefficient of expansion during solidification, have been mentioned in literature to be contributory factors to improved hardening in particle reinforced composites [12,35].…”

“…The improved UTS values for the Al-Zn composites compared to the composition reinforced with SiC, on the strength of experimental evidence can be linked to improved interface strengthening in the Cu reinforced Al-Zn composites. Metals are reported to have stronger interface bonding when reinforced with metals compared with metals reinforced with ceramics [14,38].…”

“…Recently, the consideration of metallic materials used as reinforcement in aluminium matrix composites (AMCs) is gathering momentum À this is because they can offer improved ductility and toughness to AMCs without compromising strength and most service critical material properties [12][13][14][15].…”