Porous Structure of Cylindrical Particle Compacts

The porous compacts of non-spherical particles are frequently used in energy storage devices and other advanced applications. In the present work, the microstructures of compacts of monodisperse cylindrical particles are investigated. The cylindrical particles with various aspect ratios are generated using superquadrics, and the discrete element method was adopted to simulate the compacts formed under gravity deposition of randomly oriented particles. The Voronoi tessellation is then used to quantify the porous microstructure of compacts. With one exception, the median reduced free volume of Voronoi cells increases, and the median local packing density decreases for compacts composed of cylinders with a high aspect ratio, indicating a loose packing of long cylinders due to their mechanical interlocking during compaction. The obtained data are needed for further optimization of compact porous microstructure to improve the transport properties of compacts of non-spherical particles.

Nickel Porous Compacts Obtained by Medium-Frequency Electrical Resistance Sintering

A commercially pure (c.p.) nickel powder was consolidated by Medium-Frequency Electrical Resistance Sintering (MF-ERS). In this consolidation technique, a pressure and the heat released by a high-intensity and low-voltage electrical current are concurrently applied to a metal powder mass. A nickel powder with a high tap porosity (86%) and a low applied pressure (only 100 MPa) is chosen in order to be able to obtain compacts with different levels of porosity, to facilitate the study of the porosity influence on the compact properties. The influence of current intensity and heating time on the global porosity values, the porosity and microhardness distribution, and the electrical conductivity of the sintered compacts is studied. The properties of the compacts consolidated by MF-ERS are compared with the results obtained by the conventional powder metallurgy route, consisting of cold pressing and furnace sintering. A universal equation to describe the porosity influence on all the analyzed properties of powder aggregates and sintered compacts is proposed and validated.

Physical Properties of Copper Based MMC Strengthened with Alumina

The aim of this work is the development of Cu-Al2O3 composites of copper Cu-ETP matrix composite materials reinforced by 20 and 30 vol.% Al2O3 particles and study of some chosen physical properties. Squeeze casting technique of porous compacts with liquid copper was applied at the pressure of 110 MPa. Introduction of alumina particles into copper matrix affected on the significant increase of hardness and in the case of Cu-30 vol. % of alumina particles to 128 HBW. Electrical resistivity was strongly affected by the ceramic alumina particles and addition of 20 vol. % of particles caused diminishing of electrical conductivity to 20 S/m (34.5% IACS). Thermal conductivity tests were performed applying two methods and it was ascertained that this parameter strongly depends on the ceramic particles content, diminishing it to 100 Wm-1K-1 for the composite material containing 30 vol.% of ceramic particles comparing to 400 Wm-1K-1 for the unreinforced copper. Microstructural analysis was carried out using SEM microscopy and indicates that Al2O3 particles are homogeneously distributed in the copper matrix. EDS analysis shows remains of silicon on the surface of ceramic particles after binding agent used during preparation of ceramic preforms.