Internal load transfer in an interpenetrating metal/ceramic composite material studied using energy dispersive synchrotron X-ray diffraction

The mechanism of internal load transfer in a newly developed interpenetrating metal/ceramic composite is studied for the first time in this work using energy dispersive synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The composite was fabricated by infiltration of Al12Si melt in an open porous alumina preform, fabricated using a mixture of two different polymer waxes as pore formers, by gas pressure infiltration. Several diffraction planes of all three crystalline phases of the composite – alumina, silicon and aluminum solid solution are investigated. Lattice strains, both along and transverse to the loading direction, in each phase are calculated from the shifts in the measured diffraction peak positions. Results show that until about 100 MPa applied compressive stress, all three phases undergo elastic deformation. At higher applied stresses aluminum undergoes plastic deformation and correspondingly load is transferred to alumina. The load carrying capability of alumina is however limited by incipient damage in this phase. At applied compressive stresses higher than 187 MPa, load carried by the alumina phase continuously decreases and correspondingly more load is again carried by the aluminum solid solution. Throughout, the fraction of load carried by silicon remains almost constant, suggesting no significant load transfer within the metallic alloy itself.