Fabrication of an aluminum matrix piezocomposite using hollow piezoelectric fiber

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a metal-core piezoelectric ceramics fiber/aluminum composite using a low cost hollow fiber. To develop this composite, this study applied a new fabrication process to fill the Al-Cu liquid phase alloy produced during the interphase forming/bonding (IF/B) method in the hollows. The IF/B method is a sophisticated transient liquid phase (TLP) bonding method developed to enable embedding fragile functional fibers at low temperature and low pressure in a short time period by using the eutectic reaction of inserting material and matrix. To increase the filling rate as well as removing the voids and the excessive Al-Cu alloy that remained in the matrix, the effects of the hot pressing temperature, the pressure, and the period were optimized in experiments. Under a hot pressing temperature of 873 K, a pressure of 2.2 MPa, and a period for 3.0 ks, the filling rate attained 99% without harmful chemical reactions between the fiber and the matrix, and the voids were successfully removed. In addition, it was clarified that the Al-Cu alloy core and the aluminum matrix worked as electrodes and that the embedded fiber could generate a relatively high output voltage, as well as the conventional metal-core piezoelectric ceramics fiber.

Keywords

• smart materials
• aluminum alloy
• composite materials
• piezoelectric ceramics
• semimolten and semisolid processing