The Influence of the Volume Fraction of Ceramic Particles on the Plastic Strain Localization and Fracture of Metal Matrix Composites. Computational Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, the mechanical behavior of the metal matrix composite under the action of different thermomechanical loading is investigated. The inhomogeneous structure of composites is explicitly considered in the calculations. Isotropic elastoplastic and elastic-brittle constitutive models are used to describe the mechanical response of the aluminum matrix and ceramic particles, respectively. A representative volume of the composite material containing several boron carbide particles located in the microvolume of aluminum alloy 6061T6 is considered. Two structures are created with different volume fractions of ceramic particles. It is found that the strength of the structure with lower volume fraction of particles is higher than the strength of the structure with larger volume fraction. Two types of problems are solved: 1) tension with considering residual stresses, and 2) tension without considering residual stresses. The Duhamel-Neumann relations are used to take into account residual stresses in the calculations. The influence of residual stresses on the fracture of particles in mesovolumes is investigated. Dynamic boundary value problems are solved by the finite element method in the ABAQUS / Explicit software package.