Magnetic field-assisted freeze-casting was used to create porous B4C ceramic preforms. An optimum slurry consisted of a mixture of B4C powders with 6 wt.% Er2O3 powder in an H2O-PVA solution and was cooled at a rate of 1 °C/min from room temperature to -30 °C resulting in porous green state ceramic preform with vertical channels. The Er2O3 powder was added to improve the magnetic response of the slurry. The preform was then sublimated to remove H2O and then sintered. The sintered ceramic preform was then infiltrated in the most vertically aligned channel direction with molten Al (A356) metal through a vacuum-assisted pump to create the metal matrix composite (MMC). Finite element analysis simulations were used to analyze and predict the anisotropic effect of B4C channel alignment on mechanical properties. The mechanical properties of the composite were then experimentally found via compression testing, which was compared with rule-of-mixtures and finite element modeling simulations, to analyze the effect of anisotropy due to magnetic field-assisted freeze-casting. This study reinforces the viability of cost-effective magnetic field-assisted freeze-casting as a method to create highly directional ceramic preforms, which can be subsequently metal infiltrated to produce MMCs with highly anisotropic toughness.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1944306 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Gamboa, Gerardo |
| Contributors | Young, Marcus L., Berman, Diana, Aouadi, Samir, Brennan, Raymond |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | Text |
| Rights | Public, Gamboa, Gerardo, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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