Microstructural numerical modeling of Al2O3/Ti composite

The present work focuses on the study of a numerical model of a ceramic/metal particle reinforced composite material that has the potential to be used in challenging engineering applications. The composite has been developed combining the specific properties of ceramic and metal in order to improve the overall mechanical characteristic compared to the characteristics of the individual materials only. In particular, the purpose of the composite is to improve the fracture toughness of the single ceramic in order to use it as protection against impact. Finite element modeling and analysis of a microstructure-based model have been used to analyze the mechanical behaviour of the particle reinforced composite in a virtual tensile test. The microstructure-based model has been created from scanning electron microscopy (S.E.M.) images identifying the areas and the edges of the two components present in the composite. The microstructure-based approach has been chosen for calculating the elastic properties starting from the material behaviour at the grain level in the ceramic and metal particles. The properties of the different individual particles have been used separately as the input to define the global mechanical properties of the composite. The aim of this work is to create and validate the microstructure-based model by replicating the results available from experimental data for the elastic properties of the composite. Furthermore, the numerical results have been compared with analytical models for particle reinforced composites to have a wider knowledge of the capability of the model created. Copyright (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.