Simulation of infiltration process of carbon fibres by aluminium alloy in modified GPI method
Werner A. Hufenbach, Maik Gude, Andrzej Czulak, Damian Bodniewicz s
Quarterly No. 4, 2011 pages 324-330
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abstract The constantly rising demands for lightweight structures, particularly in traffic engineering as well as in machine building and plant engineering, increasingly require the use of continuous fibre-reinforced composite materials. These materials, due to their selectively adaptable characteristic profiles, are clearly superior to conventional monolithic materials. Especially composites with textile reinforcement offer the highest flexibility for the adaptation of the reinforcing structure with regard to complex loading conditions. This paper presents the procedure and evaluation of a gas pressure infiltration process (GPI) for the manufacture of carbon fibre-reinforced aluminium metal matrix composites (CF/Al-MMC). Furthermore, the development of a new furnace for a modified GPI method is presented. In order to verify the new design, numerical simulations of the heating in the furnace chambers were prepared, which finally formed the basis for the improvement of the furnace as well as the GPI process.