EAGER/Collaborative Research: Field-assisted Manufacturing of Metal Matrix Composites with Custom Microstructures

Iowa State University, Ames IA

Investigators

Abstract

Metal matrix composites consist of at least two distinct materials where a continuous metallic material is combined with other materials. Various types of materials, such as another metal, a ceramic, or an organic compound, typically in the form of particles and fibers, are added to the metallic material to change or improve the overall material properties. Most of the manufacturing methods used for production of metal matrix composites, however, have limited capabilities in controlling these particles and fibers and typically result in a less than ideal distribution of them. This EArly-Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) study is motivated by such limited capabilities in creating custom structures by existing manufacturing techniques for metal matrix composites. This award supports a novel concept of using an electromagnetic force to control the particles and fibers to create custom composite structures that can potentially enhance and tailor the performance. The project will help strengthen US leadership in advanced manufacturing of composite materials and contribute to various application technologies that involve control and shielding of electromagnetic field such as telecommunications, radars, waveguide materials, antennas, medical devices, and magnetic storage materials. The innovative concepts of Field-assisted Composite Manufacturing (FCM) allow construction of custom reinforcement architectures through: (i) a uniquely designed mask layer made of a magnetically shielding material that can manipulate electromagnetic field patterns in microscale resolution; and (ii) the layer-by-layer (bottom-up) manufacturing approach integrated with metallurgical processing (top-down) that can accomplish a fine control of the microstructure, while efficiently building large structures. The research team will establish a fundamental basis for the FCM by performing experiments to evaluate the novel concept of mask patterning to arrange and orient nanoparticles/fibers on a substrate sheet to achieve a custom designed microstructure after consolidation, and by developing a multiphysics numerical model that can predict particle and fiber orientation under an electromagnetic field.