Practical Approbation of Thermodynamic Criteria for the Consolidation of Bimetallic and Functionally Gradient Materials

Abstract

This study concerns the key problem of determining the conditions for the consolidation or fracture of bimetallic compounds and high-gradient materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion. The well-known approach to determining the strength is based on the assessment of the critical energy release rates during fracture, depending on the conditions of loading (the portion of shear loading). Unfortunately, most of the experimental results cannot be used directly to select suitable fracture toughness criteria before such a connection is made. This especially applies to the region of interphase interaction, when it is required to estimate the internal energy of destruction accumulated during the preparation of the joint in the adhesion layer within the range of 20–50 μm. Hence, criteria for the adhesive consolidation of bimetallic compound layers were obtained on the basis of the thermodynamics of nonequilibrium processes. The analysis of the quality of the joint using the obtained criteria was carried out on the basis of the calculation of isochoric and isobaric heat capacities and coefficients of thermal expansion of multiphase layers. The applicability of the criteria for the qualitative assessment of the adhesion of layers is demonstrated in the example of bimetallic joints of steel 316L—aluminum alloy AlSi10Mg obtained by the SLM method at various fusion modes.

Keywords

• selective laser melting (SLM)
• laser-controlled reaction synthesis
• functional graded (FG) intermetallic structures
• functional bimetallic materials (FBM)
• thermodynamical approach
• adhesive consolidation criteria