PREPARATION OF CARBON-FIBER-REINFORCED ALUMINUM VIA ULTRASONIC LIQUID INFILTRATION TECHNIQUE

An ultrasonic liquid infiltration technique has been developed for the fabrication of carbon fibre reinforced aluminium (CF/Al) precursor wires. The principal effect of ultrasound on aluminium infiltration into carbon fibres is considered to be caused by cavitation. The acoustic power required to produce cavitation in the present experimental system has been approximately calculated ta be about 150 W which is much greater than the requirement, several tens of watts, for overcoming the capillary pressure among carbon fibres. The observations on the morphology of the CF/Al precursor wires show that there are generally four states of infiltration: totally non-infiltrated, non-infiltrated in the centre and in some local regions of the wires, and completely infiltrated. It is found that carbon fibres can be sufficiently impregnated by molten aluminium given the appropriate application of ultrasound. Furthermore, a single fibre tensile test shows that there is no strength degradation of carbon fibres after aluminium infiltration. The CF/Al precursor wires obtained have an average fibre volume fraction of 26%. The maximum longitudinal tensile strength of the CF/Al wires is 605 MN m(-2), which implies a fibre strength transfer efficiency of 0.76.