Paper number 1067

SIMULATION OF NONISOTHERMAL LOW PRESSURE INFILTRATION PROCESSING

T. Dopler 1 ,V.Michaud 2 and A.Modaressi 1

1 Laboratoire de Mecanique des Sols, Structures et Matériaux, Ecole Centrale Paris,
Grande Voie des Vignes, F-92290 Ch atenay Malabry, France
2 Laboratoire de Technologie des Composites et Polym`ères (LTC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Summary Pressure infiltration processing constitutes an attractive method to produce Metal Matrix Composites (MMC). It consists in injection under external pressure and solidification of a molten metal into a porous preform constituting the reinforcing ceramic phase. Optimization of mold filling kinetics and soundness of the part requires modeling of the coupled phenomena of fluid flow and heat transfer. This paper presents a model for nonisothermal low pressure infiltration processing. The coupled phenomena are written using a homogeneization approach on the mass and energy conservation equations. The Finite Element Method is used to solve the resulting set of equations and boundary conditions. So far, isothermal infiltration at a temperature higher than the melting point and subsequent directional solidification are simulated.
Keywords metal matrix composites, infiltration, modeling, solidification, multiphase flow, permeability, saturation, homogeneization

Theme : Metal Matrix Composites ; Characterisation and Modelling

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