Tribological properties of carbon fiber-reinforced aluminum composites processed by spark plasma sintering

Abstract

The development of light-weight and high-strength materials have gained attention to meet the evergrowing demands for safer and fuel-efficient automobiles. Thus, the importance and applications of composite materials are gradually increasing [1]. In the field of metal-matrix composite manufacturing, reinforcing agents are added to the metal matrix in the form of powders, whiskers, and fibers to improve the mechanical properties of metals [2]. Fibers have been used since the 1950s as structural reinforcements to develop metal-matrix composites. However, the improvements in physical properties in terms of high strength under extreme conditions have not yet been achieved. Thus, research into versatile reinforcements such as carbon fibers (CFs) has been conducted. Choi et al. [3] developed and processed CFs from polyacrylonitrile precursor materials. The resulting polyacrylonitrile-based CFs are still used in a wide-variety of applications since they exhibit excellent elasticity with strength 10 times higher and density 1/5 less than those of steel. Aluminum (Al), on the other hand, is commonly used as an engineering material since it is abundant on the earth’s crust and is lightweight (2.7 g/cm3). Additionally, it can easily form an alloy with other metals at low or high temperatures with high ductility and corrosion resistance [4].