| dc.description.abstract | Ceramic metal matrix composites (CMMCs) are materials generally created by mixing of hard ceramic particles in a metal matrix. They were expected to combine the ductility and toughness of the metal with the high strength and elastic modulus of the ceramic. MMCs have potential applications in automotive, aeronautical and aerospace industries. Hence, a simple and economical method for fabricating MMCs is an area of intense research. In MMCs, damage evolution starts preferentially at particle matrix interface or at particle clusters in the matrix. This is due to the different physical and mechanical properties of the particle and matrix. Higher local particle volume content leads to higher stress triaxiality making it a preferential site for damage nucleation. Problems with lowering of ductility, fatigue, fracture and impact resistance, agglomeration of ceramic phase and issues related to the predictability of properties of MMCs have been the major issues that have limited their use. In order to overcome some of these shortcomings, the use of nano particles has been attracting increasing attention. The reason is their capability in improving the mechanical and physical properties of traditional MMCs. The dispersion of a nanoscale ceramic phase is needed in order to overcome the problems related to fatigue, fracture toughness, and creep behaviour at high temperatures. However, manufacturing costs, preparation of nano composites and environmental concerns have to be addressed.
Agglomeration of nano particles, when produced by the melt stir casting route, the primary route to produce MMCs, is a serious issue that limits the use of nano-particles to produce MMCs with good properties. To avoid agglomeration of the ceramic phase MMCs/nano MMCs have been produced through the powder metallurgy route. Agglomeration is avoided as this is a solid state process. Secondary processing, such as extrusion and rolling are often needed to fully consolidate materials produced in this manner. A high extrusion ratio is often required to get MMCs without porosity.
A new method of making nano-ceramic MMC using a polymer derived ceramics (PDC) has been reported. A polymer derived ceramic is a material that converts itself into a ceramic when heated above a particular temperature. In the PDC method a polymer precursor is dispersed in the metal and then converted in-situ to a ceramic phase. A feature of this process is that all the constituents of the ceramic phase are built into the organic molecules of the precursor (e.g., polysilazanes contain silicon, carbon, and nitrogen); therefore, a reaction between the polymer and the host metal or air is not required to produce the ceramic phase. The polymer can be introduced through casting or powder metallurgy route. In the casting route, the polymer powder is directly added to molten metal and pyrolyzed in-situ to create castings of metal-matrix composites. These composites have shown better properties at elevated temperatures but the problem of agglomeration of particles due to Van der Waal's forces and porosity still remains. In the powder method, the organic precursor was milled with copper powder and then plasma sprayed to produce a metal matrix composite. It is reported that these composites retains its mechanical strength close to the melting point of the copper. However, getting a nano sized distribution is difficult through this route as the plasma spray route is a melting and solidification method.
Solid state processing by powder metallurgy is possibly a better method to produce well dispersed nano-MMCs. However, powder metallurgy routes are much more expensive and only parts of limited sizes can be produced by this method.
Another solid state process Friction Stir Processing (FSP) has successfully evolved as an alternative technique to fabricating metal matrix composites. FSP is based on the principles of Friction Stir Welding (FSW). In FSW, a rotating tool with a pin and a shoulder is inserted into the material to be joined, and traversed along the line of the joint. The friction between the tool and the work piece result in localized heating that softens and plasticizes the material. During production of MMCs using FSP method, the material undergoes intense plastic deformation resulting in mixing of ceramic particles and the metal. FSP also results in significant grain refinement of the metal and has also been used to homogenize the microstructure. FSP technology has also been used to fabricate surface/bulk composites of Al-SiC, friction stir surfacing of cast aluminum silicon alloy with boron carbide and molybdenum disulphide powders and to produce ultra-fine grained Cu-SiC composites.
A major problem in the FSP of MMCs is severe tool wear that results from abrasion with hard ceramic particles. The progressive wear of the tool has been reported to increase the likelihood of void or defect development. This change in geometry has been reported in the friction stir welding of several MMCs. The problems concerning the tool life has become a serious issue in the application of FSP for producing MMCs.
In the present work the advantages of the PDC method and FSP have been combined to produce polymer derived nano ceramic MMCs. This method mainly consists of three steps. In the first step, a polymer, which pyrolysis to form a PDC at temperatures lower than the melting point of the metal, is dispersed in the metal by FSP. This step is different from the melt route where the PDC forms at temperatures above the melting point of the metal. In the second step, external pyrolysis of the polymer dispersed material is carried out. Since this is a solid state process at stresses much higher than the shear or fracture of the polymer is expected to get evenly and finely distribution in the metal. This is done by heating the polymer dispersed material to a temperature above the pyrolysation temperature of the ceramic but lower than the melting point of the metal matrix. It should be mentioned that some pyrolysis of the polymer is possible during the FSP process itself. In the third step FSP is carried out on the pyrolised material for removing porosity that would form due to gas evolution during pyrolysis and to get a more uniform dispersion of polymer derived ceramic particles in the matrix. This method will produce nano-scale metal matrix composites with a relatively high volume fraction of the ceramic phase. This method can be extended to big sheets or a particular region in a sheet with no or low wear of tools.
The material selected for the present study were pure Copper (99.9%) and Nickel Aluminum Bronze (NAB) copper alloy. The polymer precursor was poly (urea methyl vinyl) silazane, which is available commercially as CERASET. The polymer consists of silicon, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen atoms. The liquid precursor was thermally cross-linked into a rigid polymer, which was milled into a powder. This powder, having angular shaped particles of an average size of 10 µm, was used as the reinforcement. The polysilazanes convert into a highly refractory and amorphous ceramic upon pyrolysis and is known as polymer-derived silicon carbonitride which consists principally of silicon, carbon and nitrogen. The in-situ process is feasible because copper melts above the temperature at which the organic phase begins to pyrolise. The polysilazanes pyrolise in the temperature range of 973 to 1273 K, which lie below the melting temperature of copper, 1356K.The precursor has a density of approximately 1 gcm-3 in the organic phase and approximately 2 gcm-3 in the ceramic state. In the present work, we seek to introduce approximately 20 vol% of the ceramic phase into copper. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the developed copper-based in-situ polymer derived nano MMCs have been characterized in detail to understand the distribution of particles.
The microstructure of the as received, processed as well as the FSP composite material was characterized using Optical Microscope (OM), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Electron Probe Micro Analyzer (EPMA) and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). OM and SEM microstructural observations show that PDC particles are distributed uniformly with a bimodal (submicron+micron) distribution. In addition, TEM micrographs reveal the formation of very fine PDC particles of diameter 10-30 nm. X-ray diffraction and Thermo-gravimetric analysis confirms the presence of ceramic phase (Si3N4/SiC) in the matrix.
Significant improvement in mechanical properties of the FSP PD-MMCs has been observed. This in-situ formed Cu/PDC composites show five times increase in micro-hardness (260Hv - 2.5GPa) compared to processed copper base metal and in-situ NAB/PDC composite shows two times increase in micro-hardness (325Hv- 3.2GPa) compared to NAB matrix. The Cu-PDC composites exhibited better tensile strength at room temperature. In-situ formed Cu-PDC composite’s yield strength increased from 110MPa to 235MPa as compared to processed base metal, where as ultimate tensile strength increases from 246MPa to 312MPa compared to processed base metal at room temperature. This strengthening could be attributed to the presence of in-situ formed hard phases and the concomitant changes in the microstructure of the matrix material such as reduction in grain size and contribution from Orowan strengthening.
In the present work, we have observed tool wear by observing tool after each FSP pass and apart from producing a significantly harder material with higher elastic modulus, possibly for the first time, the issue of tool wear has been overcome. This is due to the fact that the composite is made by the polymer route and that the ceramic fractures easily till it reaches the nano-size.
Wear studies of this composite was carried out in a pin-on-disc machine by sliding a pin made from the composite against an alumina disc. The wear rate of the FSP PD-MMC composites increased from 1.63×10-5 to 5.72×10-6 mm3/Nm. Improved wear resistance could be attributed to the presence of the in-situ formed hard nano-phase. | en_US |
