INSTALLATION AND INTERMITTENT CHARACTERISTICS OF REINFORCED ALUMINUM MATRIX COMPOSITES

Due to the very high performance requests, a new type of, so called, “high tech” materials which are used in aircraft, rocket or automobile industry, need to have a good combination of properties under static and dynamic loading. One group of materials that can meet such requirements are metallic composites which consist of the metallic matrix (metal or alloy) reinforced whit whiskers or directionally oriented fibers of secondary phase. Currently, there are many different composite materials available, enabling one to easily select the most suitable combination of metallic matrix and reinforcing phase, depending on the uniquely defined application requests. By selecting proper type of matrix and suitable chemical composition, shape and the amount of reinforcing phase, many composites with different mechanical properties can be produced. Potential application of such materials is very wide, but the limiting factor is still their quite high price due to the complexity of their production.