Microstructures of functionally graded materials fabricated by centrifugal solid-particle andin-situ methods

Functionally graded materials (FGMs) belong to a relatively new class of inhomogeneous composite materials, in which the composition and/or microstructure undergo a gradual change along some directions. In this review article, the microstructures and composition gradients in Al/SiC, Al/Shirasu (volcanic eruptions commonly found in south Kyushu in Japan), Al/Al3Ti, Al/Al3Ni, Al/Al2Cu FGMs have been investigated. The Al/SiC, Al/Shirasu and Al/Al3Ti FGMs are fabricated by the centrifugal solid particle method where the distribution particles of SiC, Shirasu and Al3Ti are solids in the melts. On the other hand, Al/Al3Ni and Al/Al2Cu FGMs are fabricated by the centrifugalin-situ method where Al/Al3Ni and Al/Al2Cu systems have lower liquidus temperatures than the processing temperatures. The feature of Al/(Al3Ti−Al3Ni) hydrid FGM, which is fabricated by a method combining both the centrifugal solid-particle andin-situ methods, is also shown.