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Ball Milled Al Spheres for the Manufacturing of Casting-Based Al-CNT Composites

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Innovations in Mechanical Engineering (icieng 2021)

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Abstract

Carbon nanotube reinforced aluminum matrix composites are considered a promising solution for applications that require high specific mechanical properties. Even though there are numerous methods for their manufacturing, these are frequently based on powder metallurgy approaches, limiting the fabrication of components with significant volumes and complex shapes. Casting, as a manufacturing technique, is regarded as the most appropriate route to obtain complex-shaped components with a relative high microstructural quality. These techniques to obtain Al-CNT cast components is still challenging due to the agglomeration, lack of dispersion, reduced bonding and density of the CNTs in Al. To address these issues, CNTs are usually pre-processed by ball-milling with Al powder to promote bonding and disperse the reinforcement, however, these techniques are not really beneficial to casting approaches due to the increase of Al2O3 content that do not disperse within the Al alloy melts. This study proposes the use of Al spheres (~1 mm) in these ball milling techniques to prevent significant plastic deformation, the formation of Al flakes and the increase in Al2O3 content. It is shown that CNTs may be dispersed and bonded to the Al sphere surfaces. Results suggest that this is a promising novel technique to allow a successful implementation of casting-based routes to fabricate high-volume and complex-shaped Al-CNT components.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by PTDC/EMEEME/30967/2017 and NORTE-0145-FEDER-030967, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020), under Portugal 2020, and by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia – FCT I.P. national funds. Also, this work was supported by Portuguese FCT, under the reference project UIDB/04436/2020, Stimulus of Scientific Employment Application CEECIND/03991/2017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CMEMS-UMinho, University of Minho - Campus de Azúrem, Guimarães, Portugal

    Hélder Puga & Vitor Hugo Carneiro

  2. CEMMPRE - Centre for Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Processes, University of Porto, R. Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    Manuel Vieira

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  1. Hélder Puga
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  2. Vitor Hugo Carneiro
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  3. Manuel Vieira
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

    José Machado

  2. Department of Industrial Electronics, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

    Filomena Soares

  3. Poznan University of Technology, Poznan, Poland

    Justyna Trojanowska

  4. Dept.of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Cassino, Italy

    Erika Ottaviano

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Puga, H., Carneiro, V.H., Vieira, M. (2022). Ball Milled Al Spheres for the Manufacturing of Casting-Based Al-CNT Composites. In: Machado, J., Soares, F., Trojanowska, J., Ottaviano, E. (eds) Innovations in Mechanical Engineering. icieng 2021. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79165-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79165-0_5

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