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PROBLEMS
3
Section 17-1 Dispersion-Strengthened
Composites
17-1 What is a composite?
17-2 What do the properties of composite materials
depend upon?
17-3 Give examples of applications where compo-
sites are used for load bearing applications.
17-4 Give two examples of applications where com-
posites are used for non-structural applica-
tions.
17-5 What is a dispersion-strengthened composite?
How is it di¤erent from a particle-reinforced
composite?
17-6 What is a nanocomposite? How can steels con-
taining ferrite and martensite be described as
composites? Explain.
17-7 Nickel containing 2 wt% thorium is produced
in powder form, consolidated into a part, and
sintered in the presence of oxygen, causing all of
the thorium to produce ThO
2
spheres 80 nm in
diameter. Calculate the number of spheres per
cm
3
.(Note: The density of ThO
2
is 9.86 g/cm
3
.)
17-8 Spherical aluminum powder (SAP) 0.002 mm in
diameter is treated to create a thin oxide layer
and is then used to produce a SAP dispersion-
strengthened material containing 10 vol%
Al
2
O
3
. Calculate the average thickness of the
oxide film prior to compaction and sintering of
the powders into the part.
17-9 Yttria (Y
2
O
3
) particles 750 A in diameter are in-
troduced into tungsten by internal oxidation.
Measurements using an electron microscope
show that there are 5 10
14
oxide particles per
cm
3
. Calculate the wt% Y originally in the alloy.
(Note: The density of Y
2
O
3
is 5.01 g/cm
3
.)
17-10 With no special treatment, aluminum is typi-
cally found to have an Al
2
O
3
layer that is 3 nm
thick. If spherical aluminum powder prepared
with a total diameter of 0.01 mm is used to
produce the SAP dispersion-strengthened mate-
rial, calculate the volume percent Al
2
O
3
in the
material and the number of oxide particles per
cm
3
. Assume that the oxide breaks into disk-
shaped flakes 3 nm thick and 3 10
4
mm in
diameter. Compare the number of oxide par-
ticles per cm
3
with the number of solid solution
atoms per cm
3
when 3 at% of an alloying ele-
ment is added to aluminum.
Section 17-2 Particulate Composites
17-11 What is a particulate composite?
17-12 What is a cermet? What is the role of WC and
Co in a cermet?
17-13 Calculate the density of a cemented carbide, or
cermet, based on a titanium matrix if the com-
posite contains 50 wt% WC, 22 wt% TaC, and
14 wt% TiC. (See Example 17-2 for densities of
the carbides.)
17-14 A typical grinding wheel is 22.5 cm in diameter,
2.5 cm thick, and weighs 2.7 kg. The wheel
contains SiC (density of 3.2 g/cm
3
) bonded by
silica glass (density of 2.5 g/cm
3
); 5 vol% of the
wheel is porous. (Note: The SiC is in the form
of 0.04 cm cubes.) Calculate
(a) the volume fraction of SiC particles in the
wheel and
(b) the number of SiC particles lost from the
wheel after it is worn to a diameter of 20 cm.
17-15 An electrical contact material is produced by
infiltrating copper into a porous tungsten car-
bide (WC) compact. The density of the final
composite is 12.3 g/cm
3
. Assuming that all of
the pores are filled with copper, calculate
(a) the volume fraction of copper in the com-
posite,
(b) the volume fraction of pores in the WC
compact prior to infiltration, and
(c) the original density of the WC compact
before infiltration.
17-16 An electrical contact material is produced by
first making a porous tungsten compact that
weighs 125 g. Liquid silver is introduced into
the compact; careful measurement indicates that
105 g of silver is infiltrated. The final density
of the composite is 13.8 g/cm
3
. Calculate the
volume fraction of the original compact that is
interconnected porosity and the volume fraction
that is closed porosity (no silver infiltration).
17-17 How much clay must be added to 10 kg of
polyethylene to produce a low-cost composite
having a modulus of elasticity greater than
827 MPa and a tensile strength greater than
14 MPa? (Note: The density of the clay is 2.4 g/
cm
3
and that of polyethylene is 0.92 g/cm
3
.)
17-18 We would like to produce a lightweight epoxy
part to provide thermal insulation. We have
available hollow glass beads for which the out-
side diameter is 0.16 cm and the wall thickness is
C HA P T E R 1 7 Composites: Teamwork and Synergy in Materials582