Effects of Particle Clustering on the Flow Behavior of SiC Particle Reinforced Al Metal Matrix Composites

The particle distribution of particles-reinforced metal matrix composites (MMC) plays an important role. Thus it is essential to study the effect of the particle clustering behavior on the mechanical response of MMC. This paper reported the microstructure-based finite element analysis (FEA) of MMC to evaluate the clustering behavior, in which three models were established including one-clustering, two-clustering and random particles arrangement. Based on the analysis, the distributions of the von Mises effective stress and of the strain in the matrix and in the particles were obtained and analyzed, respectively. The results show that the mechanical responses in the particles and the matrix are sensitive very much to the particle clustering. Additionally, the overall stress-strain curves of the three models were depicted. It is indicated that during the elastic deformation, the elastic responses of the composites are less affected by the particle clustering. Further, the maximum principal stress in the particles and the hydrostatic stress in the matrix for the three models were investigated. The results reveal that the percentage of the particle cracking in the particle clustering model is higher compared with that in the particle random distribution model.