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Fracture toughness of nanocrystalline metal matrix composites reinforced by aligned carbon nanotubes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2015

Shuhong Dong ,
Jianqiu Zhou ,
David Hui  and
Lu Wang
Shuhong Dong
Affiliation:
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Food Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province 214122, China; and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province 210009, China
Jianqiu Zhou*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province 210009, China; and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei Province 430070, China
David Hui
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana 70148, USA
Lu Wang
Affiliation:
National Technology Research Center on Pressure Vessel and Pipeline Safety Engineering, Hefei General Machinery Research Institute, Hefei, Anhui Province 230031, China
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: zhouj@njtech.edu.cn
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Abstract

Experimental observations have shown that carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/Al nanocomposites with high level ordered nanolaminates exhibit greatly improved plasticity. The increased plasticity is mainly attributed to enhanced dislocation storage capability and two-dimensional alignment of the reinforcement. Here a theoretical model is proposed with interactions between aligned CNTs and grain boundary dislocations emitted from a crack tip taken into consideration to investigate crack blunting and fracture toughness in nanocrytalline metal matrix composites (MMCs). The critical shear stress for emission of first dislocation from intersections between a long, flat crack and aligned CNTs is quantitatively characterized. The final equilibrium positions and maximum numbers of emitted dislocations for different orientation angles and microstructures of aligned reinforcement are evaluated. In addition, the dependence of enhanced fracture toughness on effective gliding distance of emitted dislocations is also determined. The results show that the existence of aligned CNTs can lead to an increase of critical crack intensity factor by 77% than that in dislocation free case under certain conditions. The model may provide a basis understanding of ductility in aligned CNTs-reinforced nanocrystalline MMCs on respective of emission and motion of dislocations.

Keywords

nanostructuredislocationstoughness
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 30 , Issue 21 , 13 November 2015 , pp. 3267 - 3276
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2015 

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Footnotes

Contributing Editor: Yang-T. Cheng

References

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