Preparation of SiC/Al composite material by supergravity infiltration method and its properties

Abstract

SiC/Al composite materials with SiC particle sizes of 23, 48, and 150 μm were successfully prepared using the supergravity infiltration method. Engineering scale-up experiments were performed to validate this method. This approach not only achieved near-final shaping of SiC/Al composite materials but also prevented adverse interfacial reactions between the Al matrix and SiC particles due to the low preparation temperature and fast speed. Increasing the gravity coefficient resulted in higher centrifugal pressure, thereby enhancing the relative density of the SiC/Al composite materials. At a gravity coefficient of G=1000, the relative density of SiC/Al composite materials with reinforcement particle sizes of 48 and 150 μm exceeded 99.6 %. Additionally, when the gravity coefficient G is 1000, it only takes 0.02 s for the Al liquid to completely infiltrate a 2 cm SiC preform. The supergravity method significantly accelerates the infiltration speed of Al liquid.