Numerical Simulation of a Centrifugal Process to Fabricate Permittivity Graded FGM from Alumina/Epoxy Mixture

Abstract

A new numerical method to simulate the centrifugal process of fabricating functionally graded materials (FGMs) from solid-particles/viscous-matrix mixtures is proposed, and the simulation method was successfully applied to a practical fabrication process of FGM from an alumina-fillers/epoxy-resin mixture. Gradient profiles of dielectric constant of the resultant FGM were estimated by using the proposed method and compared with the experimental ones, resulting in reasonable agreement between them. Based on the numerical results, gradient pro- files of the number density and size of the dispersed fillers were confirmed, and contribution of the filler size toward the gradient in the packing fraction was demonstrated. It is concluded that the gradient in the filler distribution can be intentionally regulated by changing not only the centrifugal conditions, but also the size distribution of the fillers.

Fabrication of Permittivity Graded Epoxy Resin with Non-Uniform Dispersion of Alumina Fillers by a Centrifugal Procedure

“…The authors have reported results of experimental work on the fabrication of ε-FGMs from an alumina/epoxy mixture by using the centrifugal method, in which non-spherical alumina fillers were used [4]. Procedure of numerical simulation of the centrifugal process was described as well, and reasonable agreements between the experimental and nnumerical properties of FGMs were indicated [4,5].…”