Microstructure modeling and finite element analysis of particulate reinforced metal matrix composites

Abstract

The study of microscopic and macroscopic response of a particulate reinforced metal matrix composites (PRMMC) using finite element (FE) analysis is the aim of the current investigation. In this regard, three types of microstructure models are subjected to FE analysis. In the first part of the work, a technique is presented for the generation of artificial microstructures containing spherical and ellipsoid shaped inclusions. The problem of detection of ellipsoidal intersection is tackled using newly available algorithms. To account for higherscale effects such as clustering, information from the micro-scale model is input into a meso-scale model. The FE analysis of the artificial microstructure and a summary of the results form the second part of the study. It is seen that the newly developed models agree very well with the published results and that the microstructure generation technique can be reused in many computational micromechanics problems with minimum modifications. Finally, the results obtained from the new models are used to study a problem of practical significance, namely bolted joints made of MMC material.