FEM based damping studies of metastable Al/Ti composites

In the present study, the damping capacity of a metal matrix composite is predicted using a micro-mechanical modelling approach. The model is based on finite element analysis of an axisymmetric unit cell, which mimics a pure metallic cylinder with a stiff reinforcing spherical particulate placed at the center. The energy dissipated by the composite is numerically predicted using the unit cell by applying a harmonic load, taking into account the viscoplastic behavior of the processing induced residual plastic strain at the matrix-reinforcement interface of the composite. The model shows that the plastic zone size increases with volume fraction of Ti added which results in a proportional increase in the damping capacity of the composite. The model was validated by comparing the numerical results against an impact based suspended beam experiment conducted at low strain amplitude on Al/Ti samples with different volume fractions of Ti particulates.