Infiltration kinetics of fibrous preforms by aluminum with solidification

Abstract

The infiltration mechanism of molten aluminum in a fibrous preform was investigated both experimentally and theoretically by using SiC whisker preforms which were deformed during infiltration. To analyze the correlation between applied pressure and infiltration front in the preform, the distribution of hardness along the infiltration direction in the deformed preform were measured and the distribution of volume fraction was calculated. There was a limit in the infiltration distance when pre-heat temperature of the preform was lower than the melting point of aluminum. A theoretical expression was derived to describe fluid flow including solidification in the preform and good agreement with experimental results was obtained. © 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd.