Abstract
Infiltration experiments on aluminum cast into SAFFIL alumina fiber preforms containing a silica binder and of fiber volume fraction varying from 10 to 25 pct are reported. Data are compared with the theory presented in Part I and used to characterize wettability of the preforms by plotting the infiltrated length of composite divided by the square root of time as a function of applied pressure. The intercept of the resulting curves with the abscissa axis is shown to be a measurement of the capillary pressure needed to fully infiltrate the fiber preforms. Resulting experimental values of this capillary pressure are then used with Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) adsorption isotherm measurements of the preform’s specific surface to derive an apparent wetting angle of the fibers by aluminum during infiltration. In this manner, the effective wetting angle of pure aluminum on the alumina/silica fibers is found to be 106 ±5 deg, independent of fiber preform temperature. We also propose a mechanism for preventing preform compression during infiltration.
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Formerly Undergraduate Student with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Mortensen, A., Wong, T. Infiltration of fibrous preforms by a pure metal: Part III. capillary phenomena. Metall Trans A 21, 2257–2263 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02647888
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02647888