ALUMINUM/BERYLLIUM/DIAMOND COMPOSITES FOR AIRCRAFT POWER COMPONENTS

THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY AND PERFORMANCE OF ALUMINUM-MATRIX COMPOSITES REINFORCED BY DIAMOND OR DIAMOND/ BERYLLIUM ELEMENTS FOR AIRCRAFT POWER COMPONENTS. IT IS EXPECTED THAT SELECTED SAMPLES WILL EXHIBIT TENSILE STRENGTH, THERMAL COEFFICIENT OF EXPANSION (TCE), AND YOUNG'S MODULUS SUPERIOR TO THAT OF ANY EXISTING TRADITIONAL METAL OR ALUMINUMBASED METAL-MATRIX COMPOSITE (MMC) SYSTEM. PHASE I FOCUSES ON MANUFACTURING AND CHARACTERIZING A RANGE OF A1/D AND AL/BE/D MIXTURES PRODUCED BY ONE OF SEVERAL POSSIBLE FABRICATION PROCESSES. ESTABLISHED MMC MODELS WILL DIRECT THE PRODUCTION OF TEST SAMPLES. STRUCTURAL, PERFORMANCE, AND FABRICATION TESTS WILL BE PERFORMED TO MEASURE COMPOSITE SAMPLE PROPERTIES AND ESTABLISH ITS POTENTIAL FOR A VARIETY OF AIRBORNE APPLICATIONS. DEPENDING UPON PROJECT RESULTS, A PHASE II PROGRAM WILL BE PROPOSED TO OPTIMIZE MMC CHEMISTRY AND PROCESSING FOR MORE EXTENSIVE EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL AND ITS POSSIBLE USES.