Meso-scale simulations of strain-induced reaction mechanisms in Ti/Al/B heterogeneous systems

Abstract

We investigate the effects of bulk composition and reactant configuration on the strain-induced reaction behavior of Ti/Al/B powder mixture compacts under uniaxial stress loading conditions. Impact experiments reveal a varying degree of reactivity as a function of Al content in the ternary mixture. Impact simulations are conducted on both real and synthetic microstructures of the same composition and with a random distribution of particles. An increase in hot-spots and strain localization is observed to occur at higher impact velocities, contributing to greater reactivity. The synthetic structures behave similarly to the real structures providing a preliminary validation of the synthetic scheme. A number of stereological metrics were used to describe the microstructural evolution during simulation as a function of time. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.