A Study on Evaluation of Thermal Shock Damage of Metal Matrix Composite using Ultrasonics

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Metal matrix composites(MMCs) are rapidly becoming one of the strongest candidates for structural materials for many high temperature application. Among the high temperature environment, thermal shock is known to cause significant degradation in most MMC system. Therefore, the nondestructive evaluation on thermal shock damage behavior of SiC/A16061 composite has been carried out using ultrasonic surface and SH-waves. For this study, Sic fiber reinforced metal matrix composite specimens fabricated by a squeeze casting technique were thermally cycled in the temperature range 25~$400^{\circ}C$ up to 1000 cycles. Three point bend test was conducted to investigate the effect of thermal shock damage on mechanical properties. The relationship between thermal shock damage behavior and the change of ultrasonic velocity and attenuation were discussed by considering SEM observation of fracture surface.