Acta mom-. Vol. 45, No. 10, pp.

42834296, 1997
0 1997 Acta Metallurgica Inc.
Pergamon Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
PII: s1359-6454(97)ooo73-6 1359-6454197 $17.00 + 0.00

EFFECT OF CYCLIC PRESSURE ON THE LOW

TEMPERATURE CONSOLIDATION OF SEVERAL
COMPOSITE POWDER SYSTEMS

CHING-YAO HUANG and GLENN S. DAEHN

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, 2041 College Road,
Columbus, Ohio 43210, U.S.A.

(Received 2 October 1996; acrepted 23 December 1996)

Abstract-The effect of cyclic pressure on the room temperature composite powder consolidation has been
studied. Mixed metal and ceramic powders were consolidated under static and cyclic pressure at room
temperature in constrained “uniaxial” consolidation. In this paper, five composite powder systems,
Pb/TiOz, Pb/SiC, Al/AbO,, Al/Sic, and Zn/AbO,, have been studied at 40% ceramic by volume. This
complements an extensive study of Pb/AhOj in static and cyclic consolidation that was reported earlier
[l]. The experiments show that pressure cycling greatly enhances densification relative to static compaction
at the same maximum pressures. The proposed reason for improved densification in cyclic pressure is that
the pressure changes (AP) may directly induce plastic deformation due to elastic mismatch strains that
develop between the metal and ceramic phases. These are induced owing to the compressibility difference
(A/Y)between the two phases. The six powder systems studied to date (at many pressure cycle amplitudes)
show that all the data for density change nearly collapse to one trend line when plotted against the
dimensionless strain ratio, ABAP/c,, where the numerator represents the linear elastic mismatch strain and
to is the matrix yield strain. This term must exceed a value near 3 in order to significantly improve
consolidation by pressure cycling. This effect is expected to have practical importance as the pressures
required to improve consolidation are often accessible and the strengths of the compacts formed by
pressure cycling are significantly greater than those produced in static consolidation. 0 1997 Acta
Metallurgica Inc.

INTRODUCTION produced with each pressure cycle, incremental

Powder metallurgy techniques hold much promise
for the creation of metal-ceramic composites, as has
been shown in many studies [2-h]. The ability to use
relatively low consolidation temperatures offers the
ability to retain metastable phases that might be
formed by rapid solidification, for example. How-
ever, when the ceramic fraction becomes large,
it becomes difficult to densify the metal-ceramic
aggregate [ 1, 7-l l] and often the compacts produced
have significant density gradients [12]. The most
common methods used to mitigate such problems are
the applications of higher compaction pressures
or temperatures. While this may be effective for
consolidation, higher pressures require larger pro-
cessing equipment and higher temperatures can cause
the loss of metastable phases or produce undesirable
matrix-reinforcement reactions, or both.
In a previous paper [l], we suggested that the
application of cyclic, instead of static, pressure may
aid the densification of metal-ceramic powder
metallurgy compacts. We argued that upon a change
in pressure, deviatoric stresses would be generated at
matrix-reinforcement interfaces and those stresses
in turn can produce plastic deformation which can
aid the filling of voids. As small strains may be
consolidation could take place over many cycles.
Previous work from the Pb/ ALO3 system supported
this hypothesis. In the experiments, simple con-
strained die compaction performed in static com-
paction was compared to that done with a sinusoidal
pressure-time variation. Figure 1 is reproduced from
that work. This shows that for lead reinforced with
large amounts of alumina, compaction is greatly
aided by pressure cycling. However for pure lead,
compaction is not aided by pressure cycling. The
effect is shown to be so strong that by the imposition
of 100,000 l-Hz pressure cycles between 414 MPa
and 0 MPa pressure, Pb-40% AlzOs will become
more dense than unreinforced lead compacted at
414 MPa for 100,000 s. Related work [13] also
demonstrated that the density is more uniformly
distributed in these cyclically processed composite
compacts.
The previous work considered several possible
mechanisms by which density might be improved and
argued that elastic strain mismatch is responsible.
Experiments show that there is generally a critical
pressure cycle amplitude that is required to initiate
the enhancement in densification and beyond this,
for a given number of cycles, the density increases
almost linearly with increasing pressure cycle

4283
 HUANG and DAEHN: EFFECT OF CY’C’LI(‘PRESSURE

- Cyclic
^___ Static

_+_-"----
85 - ___-_--- ___-- -o------
*c ____----
_G%

hhnber of Cycles or Time (see)

Fk 1. ComParison of compact consolidation under steady pressure (open symbols) and cyc[ic compaction
in Pb-AhQ powder compacts with O%, IO%, 20%, and 40% (by volume) alumina. In the static case,
the horizontal axis corresponds to time and the applied pressure was held at 414 MPa. In the cyclic case,
Pressure cycled between 414 and 0 MPa and 1 Hz cycles were used. Note that in pressure cycling large
changes in density take Place for the highly reinforced compacts, but there is little change for those dilute
in reinforcement.

amplitude. The interpretation of this is that beneath
a critical pressure change, the metal at the matrix-
reinforcement interface is not loaded to its yield stress
at the extreme pressures and densification is not
aided. Following this argument, one would expect
that a good figure of merit in analyzing such
experiments would be the ratio of the Eshelby
mismatch strain [14-161 to the yield strain of the
matrix. This can be expressed as A/I API&,, where AjI
is the difference in compressibility between the matrix
and reinforcement, AF represents the pressure change
imposed, and 60 represents the matrix yield strain.
If this term is above some value, the consolidation of
a given green composite could be aided by pressure
cycling.
The present work seeks to find whether the effect
of pressure cycling aids consolidation in other
Powder Metallurgy (P/M) composite systems. and
whether the term, A/3 APIt,, is a good characterizing
figure of merit. Here we examine combinations of
three different particulate matrix metals and three
ceramic reinforcements under pressure cycling and
static compaction at room temperature. In summary,
we find that all the systems appear to follow a
common trend that can be expressed in terms of
A/?AP/G,~ and similar to our previous work [l], the
mechanical properties of the compact improved
beyond those seen in static compaction by a much
larger factor than density, suggesting that inter-
particle adhesion is also greatly improved. These
results can be applied to the design of processes that
may improve the consolidation of composites from
mixed metal and ceramic powders.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
The experimental work foIlows that of our
previous studies [ 1, 171. Five composite powder
systems based upon three metal powders (Pb, Al, Zn)
and three ceramic reinforcements (A1203, TiOz, Sic)
were studied. Several scanning electron images were
used to roughly estimate average particle size and
assess shape. Representative images of the initial
metal and ceramic powders are shown in Figs 2
and 3, respectively. Note that images of Pb and
Alz03 particles are available in Ref. [I]. The average
 HUANG and DAEHN:
Fig. 2. Scanning electron micrographs
particle size of Pb powder is about 10 pm and the
shape tends to be globular. The Al and Zn powders
have average particle sizes of about 7 and 5 pm,
respectively, and are nearly spherical in shape. In
contrast, the ceramic reinforcements tend to be more
irregular in shape. AlzOs is 6 pm in average particle
diameter and rather plate-like in shape. TiOz is
0.2 pm in average particle size and spherical in shape,
and agglomerates rather strongly. The SIC has a
whisker morphology 1 pm in diameter 20 pm in
EFFECT OF CYCLIC PRESSURE 4285
of the metal powders: (a) Al, (b) Zn
length on average and also tends to agglomerate.
The properties of the components [18, 191 and
combinations studied are summarized in Tables 1
and 2, respectively.
To compare with the previous study, we chose to
use 40% (by volume) loading of ceramic as our
standard condition, and the relationship between
pressure cycle amplitude and density is of primary
interest. The five composite powder systems were
mixed in a twin shell mechanical dry blender for
4286 HUANG and DAEHN: EFFECT OF CYCLIC PRESSURE

Fig. 3. Scanning electron micrographs of the ceramic reinforcements: (a) SIC whiskers, (b) TiOz powders

30 min to provide a uniform distribution. However, average sizes of remaining Sic whisker agglomerates
for Pb/TiO*, PbjSiC, and Al/SIC powder systems, in the PbjSiC and Al/Sic systems are about 150
it was difficult to obtain a uniform distribution and 600 pm, respectively. This is probably due to the
because of agglomeration in the original ceramic larger particle size and much higher density of Pb
powders. But during powder mixing, significant relative to Al, which provides a greater force to break
de-agglomeration took place as was observed by the Sic whisker agglomerates in mixing. Hence, we
examining the mixed powders with the scanning expect somewhat greater matrix-reinforcement con-
electron microscope (SEM). Further detail on this is tact in the PbjSiC system than in the Al/Sic system.
provided in Ref. [17]. In the Pb/TiOl system, significant de-agglomeration
More complete de-agglomeration occurred in also occurred. The average final size of Ti02 powder
the PbjSiC system than in the Al/Sic system. The agglomerates is about 40 pm. However, there are still
 HUANG and DAEHN: EFFECT OF CYCLIC PRESSURE
Table I. The values of compressibility and the average particle size inthe studied metal and
ceramic powders
Properties Pb Zn
b x 1O-6 (MPam’) 22.37t 13.32t
Average particle size (pm) 10 5 7
tData from Ref. [18].
fData calculated using b = 3(1 - 2v)iE from Ref. [19].
a few large agglomerates existing after mixing, which
are about 200 km in size. In this system, the TiOt
particles tend to essentially coat the Pb particles.
Compaction was carried out in a standard right
cylindrical die 12.7 mm in diameter. For each system,
the same mass of powder was used to produce a
compact about 9 mm in height. Static compaction
was carried out at 414 MPa for 10,000 s. Cyclic
compaction was conducted by simply imposing
sinusoidal force cycles to 100,000 cycles at 10 Hz.
This provided the same time at pressure for both
static and cyclic compaction. In all cases, except when
AP was 483 MPa, the maximum pressure in the cycle
was held at 414 MPa, and the minimum pressure was
varied to control the cycle amplitude. In the case
where AP was 483 MPa, the low pressure was set
to zero. In all cases, loading was performed on a
servo-hydraulic test frame in closed-loop load
controlled mode. The accuracy and precision of the
extreme loads are within 1% of their nominal values.
After compaction, the composite green density of
the cylindrical samples was determined by simply
measuring the mass (to within $0.001 g) and the
volume (by measurements of the right cylinder to
+O.Ol mm precision). The fractional density is the
ratio of the bulk density of the specimen to the
theoretical density of the powder composite which
is determined by the simple rule of mixtures. In all
cases, the compacts took the shape of the die cavity
after extraction and showed a diameter about 0.3%
greater than that of the die cavity owing to elastic
spring back. To test the reproducibility of the density
measurements, nominally identical replication of 12
compaction conditions of the Pb/A1203 systems were
run 2-3 times each. In all cases, the variance in
measured density between identical conditions was
0.6% or less. The average standard deviation of these
experiments is 0.17%.
In order to estimate the green tensile strength
of many composite systems that contain a the time-averaged stress in the compact decreases.
lead matrix, small rectangular parallelepiped bars
12.7 mm x 3.2 mm x 2.0 mm were cut from the
Table 2. Experiments performed in pressure cycling and static consolidation
Reinforcement/Metal Pb
ALO, Several Vr
(see Ref. [l])
TiOz 40%
Sic 40%
None Isotropic-
no mismatch
4287
Al A1201 TiOz Sic
13.147 4.17t 4.54t 3.85t
6 0.2 I:20 (d:l)
center of the samples using a diamond saw and
subjected to three-point bend testing. In each case,
the bar’s axis is normal to the compaction direction.
The testing conditions were the same as the earlier
study in the Pb/A1203 system [l]. No replicate
experiments were run to assess the reproducibility of
this procedure. However, from examination of the
deviation of similarly developed data (trend-line in
Fig. 10 of ref. [l]), a variance of 20% of the value
or less is expected. After testing, the fracture surfaces
of composite powder compacts were examined by
SEM.
RESULTS
Effect of pressure cycle amplitude
PbIA1203, ZniALO,, and Al/AlzO, systems. The
composite powder compacts consisting of 40% AhO3
ceramic powders and various metal powders were
consolidated under static and cyclic pressure con-
ditions with the maximum pressure held at 414 MPa
and variable low pressures. Fractional density as
a function of pressure cycle amplitude is shown in
Fig. 4. All three systems exhibit a region at low
pressure cycle amplitudes where density varies
little with pressure amplitude, and beyond a critical
pressure amplitude there is another region where
density increases nearly linearly with pressure
amplitude. The critical pressure change, APctit, is
140 MPa for the Pb/A1203 system, 210 MPa for the
Zn/AhO, system, and 320 MPa for the Al/Al,O,
system.
There is one small unusual feature in these data,
i.e. for the Zn-AlzOj system, the density actually
decreases slightly with increasing pressure cycle
amplitude in a small pressure amplitude region.
It appears that this is due to a significant time
dependence of the zinc powder at room temperature
and because as the pressure cycle amplitude increases,
Thus, the consolidation rate decreases with increasing
AP. Also, zinc is interesting from the point of view
Zn Al
40% 40%
Not studied Not studied
Not studied 40%
Hexagonal- Not studied
produces mismatch
4288 HUANG and DAEHN: EFFECT OF CYCLIC PRESSURE

Fig. 4.Effect of pressure cycle amplitude on the fractional density for P&40% ALO,, Zn40% A1201,
and A140% AhO, powder systems. All of the data tested in the cyclic pressure conditions were measured
after 100,000 cycles at 10 Hz.

that it is an h.c.p. metal and the imposition of
pressure on an aggregate of h.c.p. grains will produce
deviatoric stresses that can, in principle, induce
plasticity. This effect was also studied by consolidat-
ing pure Zn powder in static and pressure cycling
conditions [17]. In the static pressure conditions, Zn
powders were compacted at 414 MPa for 30, 1000,
and 10,000 s. Also compaction was run for the same
amount of time with 1 and 10 Hz sinusoidal pressure
cycles between 0 and 414 MPa. For zinc, the time
dependence was much stronger than the pressure
cycle dependence. Increasing the dwell time during
static compaction from 30 to 10,000 s raised the
density from 93% to 96%. Pressure cycling only
added about 1% to the density and the 1 Hz cycles
gave higher densities than the 10 Hz ones despite the
imposition of fewer cycles. This shows that there is
a complicated time dependence in the zinc system,
but consolidation is not strongly enhanced by the
level of pressure cycles that are imposed. These results
were quite different from the Pb and Al cases
which show fairly rate-insensitive but cycle-number
dependent behavior in these experiments.
Pb/AlzOs, PblTi02, and PbjSiC systems. Figure 5
shows results from all three reinforcements with a
lead matrix. There is a clear AP,,, in the Pb/A120j
and PbjSiC systems, but the transition between low
and high pressure cycle amplitude behavior is more
obscure in the Pb/TiOz system (but the slope of the
lines does increase at large AP values, which we can
use to suggest a AP,,,,). In this case, the increase in
densification at low cycle amplitudes is likely due
to the break-up of significant Ti02 aggregates in
something like compression fatigue
The difference in compressibility between the
ceramic and metal phases is very similar in these three
cases. Therefore, the data in Fig. 5 give insight as
to how changes in particle shape (and possibly
agglomeration) affect densification in pressure
cycling. It is interesting to note that in each case, the
values of APall are similar as are the slopes of the lines
at large pressure cycle amplitudes. The different
reinforcements mostly affect the absolute values of
fractional density in a way that might be intuitively
expected.
AIIAlzO, and Al/Sic systems. Part of the
motivation to study aluminum/alumina and alumi-
num/silicon carbide comes about because both
systems have been extensively studied as potential
structural materials. The results on densification as a
function of pressure cycle amplitude are presented in
the usual way in Fig. 6. The critical pressure cycle
amplitude in the Al/SC system is significantly lower
than that in the Al/A1203 system. To first order, we
expect that the similar compressibility mismatch
between matrix and reinforcement should produce a
similar critical pressure change. The relative differ-
ence between the AP,,, values might be attributed
to the varied morphologies of the reinforcements.
Whisker-like reinforcements may be expected to give
reduced critical mismatch strains owing to greater
geometric constraint [20], but a rigorous analysis that
would directly apply to this case is difficult. Note that
a very similar trend is seen in the lead system with the
SIC and AllO reinforcements, although the trend is
not as strong. Also, the SIC system tends to
agglomerate much more significantly. This may also
affect the absolute values of density. It might also be
 HUANG and DAEHN: EFFECT OF CYCLIC PRESSURE 4289

0 loo 200 300 400 500

AP UtdPa)
Fig. 5. Effect of pressure cycle amplitude on the fractional density for Pb40% AhOjpr Ph40%TiO+
and P&IO% Sic, powder systems. All of the data tested in the cyclic pressure conditions were measured
after 100,000 cycles at 10 Hz.

argued that the lower AP,,,, is affected by the break-up
of Sic aggregates.
Green strength in bending
The mechanical properties of the three composite
systems with a lead matrix were examined by
measuring the bend strength of small machined bars.
The results are shown in Fig. 7. In each case studied,
cyclic compaction greatly improves the strength of
the green composite and strength is generally
enhanced with increasing numbers of applied cycles
and pressure cycle amplitude. This is in accord with
the fractional density results. However, the relative
strength changes are much greater than the relative
changes in density. For example, while density may
increase lo%, strength can increase by a factor
of 4-6. This shows that interparticle bonding is also
strongly improved by pressure cycling. Also, the
relative strengths of the three systems seem to show
a rather consistent pattern where the AlzOi and

Fig. 6. Effect of pressure cycle amplitude on the fractional density for AlMO% A1~01~ and A140% Sic,
powder systems. All of the data were measured after 100,000 cycles at 10 Hz.
4290 HUANG and DAEHN: EFFECT OF CYCLIC PRESSURE
El Pb/AW,p
120 ?? PblSiCw
?? Pb/TiO,p
StrtiC
P.414 MPa
10,000 set
!l!
Cyclic
AP414 MPa
10,000 cycles
Fig. 7. Comparison of green strength between static and cyclic compaction for Pkeramics
systems. Cyclic data were obtained at 10 Hz. In the case of AP = 483 MPa, the peak pressure was also
483 MPa. In the other cases, the peak pressure was 414 MPa.
SIC reinforced systems show similar strengths after
the same processing route, while the TiOl system
is significantly weaker than the A&Or or SIC
reinforced composites after identical processing. We
expect that because the TiOl particles are so much
smaller than the lead particles, they tend to coat the
initial particle surfaces and this inhibits interparticle
bonding.
Microstructural observations
Comparisons of the fracture surfaces of PbjSiC
and Pb/TiOz composite powder compacts obtained
under static and cyclic pressure conditions are shown
in Figs 8 and 9, respectively. All the images presented
here were taken near the center of all specimens from
machined bars that were broken in bending. In the
PbjSiC system, the images show that a larger number
of elliptically shaped cavities exist in the static case
than in the cyclic case. The size of these cavities
is similar to that of the Sic whisker agglomerates
after mixing. The cavities presumably develop their
elliptical shape owing to axial compaction. The
existence of the fewer and smaller cavities in the cyclic
case suggests that Pb particles have become heavily
deformed and appear to be somewhat able to
penetrate the Sic whisker agglomerates and might
possibly bond with whiskers. Also note that in the
high magnification images, particles appear to be
discrete after static compaction, but the material
is much more homogeneous and continuous after
cyclic compaction.
In the Pb/Ti02 system, the image in the static case
shows little evidence of either gross plastic defor-
mation of the lead or particle-particle bonding. In
contrast, the surface of the cyclically compacted
Cyclic
AP-414 MPa
100,000 cycles
Cyclic
AP=483 MPa
100,000 cycles
composite
sample is much more homogeneous and less granular,
suggesting much better interparticle bonding.
The fracture surfaces of Al/SIC and Al/A120r
composite powder compacts obtained under static
and cyclic pressure conditions are shown in Figs 10
and 11, respectively. Pressure cycling produces
significantly improved densification relative to the
static condition as well as more extensive particle
deformation and apparent interparticle bonding.
Many of the Al powders in the static case retain much
of their original particle shape even though plastic
deformation occurs on the Al particle surface. In
contrast, the original particle shape of Al powders in
the cyclic case can no longer be detected, with the
exception of a few of the smaller Al powders.
DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
These results show that the five composite systems
with relatively different combinations of material
characteristics and morphology behave very similarly
in pressure cycling. Repeated pressure changes
consistently significantly improve compact density,
green strength, and appear to produce more
homogeneous microstructure with improved inter-
particle bonding. We have proposed that this effect is
due to compressibility mismatch between the matrix
and reinforcing phases inducing plastic deformation.
A significant amount of support for this idea
was presented in a previous publication [l]. For
example, the observation that pressure cycling does
not significantly improve the densification of
single-phase powders of cubic crystals is in support of
this idea. Also, other possible mechanisms for
enhanced densification were considered [l]. Possibly,
 HUANG and DAEHN: EFFECT OF CYCLIC PRESSURE
the most plausible other explanation is that pressure
cycling produces sample heating owing to plastic
work, or punch-die friction (elastic deformation can
also produce a temperature change, but these heat
flows are reversible). Indeed, pressure cycling does
cause moderate temperature rises. At 10 Hz at steady
state (i.e. over 2 h of cycling), a temperature rise of
5°C is measured on the die (upon removing the
compact, we also note the temperature rise of the
sample and die are quite similar). However, at 1 Hz,
there is no detectable temperature rise on the die. As
the change in measured density is the same in both
cases, the effect of temperature rise can be discounted.
Furthermore, similar temperature rises take place
in cyclic compaction of pure metals, and cyclic
compaction at 10 Hz only slightly increased the
density of pure lead and zinc compacts relative to
static compaction.
Fig. 8(a,b). Caption overleaf.
4291
The main purpose of this paper is to examine if
there is a first-order trend that runs through several
data sets. By the logic presented briefly in the
introduction and a little more thoroughly elsewhere
[l, 13, 17,211, we believe that if mismatch strains are
responsible for improved densification, the ratio
AfiAP/c, should represent a rough, but predictive
figure of merit for pressure cycling compaction,
so long as data sets are compared at the same
reinforcement fraction and number of cycles. Of
course, changes in relative sizes of the metal and
reinforcement, differences in particle morphology,
differences in initial packing density, and compli-
cations like agglomeration are fully expected to
modify this first-order “model”.
In order to assess this figure of merit, the yield
strain (or yield stress and Young’s modulus) of the
matrix powder materials must be known. This was
4292 HUANG and DAEHN: EFFECT OF CYCLIC‘ PRESSURE

Fig. 8. Fracture surfaces of Pb-40% Sic, green composite powder compacts broken in three-point
bending; (a) and (b) show the material that was consolidated at 414 MPa static pressure for 10,000 s (c)
and (d) show material subjected to 100,000 cycles at IO Hz to a peak pressure of 414 MPa. These images
were taken near the center of specimens and the compaction direction is vertical.

estimated by simple uniaxial compression tests on 70 MPa may appear to overestimate the aluminum
unreinforced metal compacts. Pure metal powders flow stress based on the data shown in Fig. 12, this
were first compacted at 414 MPa for 10,000 s to may still underestimate the actual material flow
a final L/D ratio of 2.0 and the fractional stress.
density fortuitously turned out to be 93% for each of The data shown in Figs 4-6, as well as data from
the three metal compacts. The results of the the Pb-A1201 system published earlier [1], is replotted
compression tests on each of these compacts are in terms of the change in fractional density relative to
shown in Fig. 12. The exact yield point is difficult to static compaction vs the normalized mismatch strain,
precisely identify in each case, but estimates that are A jAP/c, in Fig. 13. The results show that despite
reasonable for this first-order analysis are available. differences in morphologies, relative sizes, and
We estimate the yield stresses of the Pb, Zn, and properties, all six data sets nearly collapse to
Al systems to be approximately 30 MPa, 90 MPa, one relatively narrow band. Specifically, density is
and 70 MPa, respectively. In the case of the Al increased by pressure cycling in each system when the
system, the compact began to peel apart long before mismatch strain becomes greater than approximately
peak load, suggesting the actual yield strength of three times the matrix yield strain, and very
the material was not reached. As a result while significant changes in density are observed after
 HUANG and DAEHN: EFFECT OF CYCLIC PRESSURE 4293

Fig. 9. Fracture surfaces of P&40% Ti02, green composite powder compacts broken in three-point
bending; (a) shows the material that was consolidated at 414 MPa static pressure for 10,000 s; (b) shows
material subjected to 100,000 cycles at 10 Hz to a peak pressure of 414 MPa.

100,000 pressure cycles when the mismatch strain the same pressure, densities no higher than 98% of
becomes about six times the matrix yield strain. theoretical could be obtained. Thus, the proposed
These data can be compared with those on powder figure of merit of the normalized mismatch strain
consolidation of white cast iron powders subjected to seems to give insight. Many cycles with small
pressure through 10 cycles of ferrite-austenite phase mismatch strain can give similar effects to a few cycles
transformations induced by temperature cycling with very large mismatch strains.
performed by Ruano .et al. [22]. In this case, the Of course, the explanation presented here falls far
calculated normalized mismatch strain is about 140, short of a careful first-principles model. Factors such
but full densification was obtained in 10 phase as relative particle size, agglomeration, particle shape,
transition cycles. In isothermal deformation at and possibly the frictional or sticking conditions
4294 HUANG and DAEHN: EFFECT OF CYCLIC PRESSURE

Fig. 10. Fracture surfaces of A140% Sic, green composite powder compacts broken in three-point
bending: (a) shows the material that was consolidated at 414 MPa static pressure for 10.000 s. (b) shows
material subjected to 100,000 cycles at IO Hr to a peak pressure of 414 MPa.

at the matrix-reinforcement interfaces are fully powder composites as many hot or cold compac Zion
expected to influence the results. Thus, one would not devices can simply be equipped to apply cyclic 1oads
necessarily expect the data shown in Fig. 13 to at rapid loading rates.
collapse to a single line, and more variation than is
shown may well be expected even within the confines
CONCLUDING REMARKS
of our explanation. While it would be desirable to
“model” this process from first principles, the authors Six composite powder systems with 40% reinfc Irce-
believe this would presently be a formidable task. ment have been studied both in static compaction and
Regardless of this, it appears that this mechanism can in pressure cycling compaction under val :ious
simply be used to improve the consolidation of pressure amplitudes. A very consistent trend ran
 HUANG and DAEHN: EFFECT OF CYCLIC PRESSURE 4295

Fig. 11. Fracture surfaces of AlAO% A120jp green composite powder compacts broken in three-point
bending; (a) shows the aterial that was consolidated at 414 MPa static pressure for 10,000 s, (b) shows
material subjected to 100,000 cycles at 10 Hz to a peak pressure of 414 MPa.

through all these data. At small pressure cycle
amplitudes, cycling did not improve consolidation;
however beyond a critical amplitude, density
increases in a nearly linear manner with increasing
pressure cycle amplitude. We have proposed that this
effect takes place because the elastic compressibility
mismatch strain (APAP) can become large relative to
the yield strain of the matrix (co). When the elastic
mismatch becomes much greater than the matrix
yield strain, the imposed change in hydrostatic stress
can induce plastic deformation. As the entire
experiment takes place in compression, this plastic
strain can aid in closing porosity [23]. This is similar
to the manner in which the plastic deformation in
rolling or extrusion can close porosity in materials,
except that in this case plastic deformation accumu-
lates over small plastic strain increments in each
cycle.
When all six data sets were compared in terms of
change in density vs A/SAP/c,, we find that despite
4296 HUANG and DAEHN: EFFECT OF CYCLIC PRESSURE

effect to be quite general and the effect can bc

extended to new systems through consideration ot
A/?AP/t, as a normalizing term. Also, even with only
this empirical understanding of this effect. it might
be used profitably in practical powder compaction
as cyclic loads are easy to apply rapidly and the
matrix yield strain can simply be reduced by heating
the powder compacts. This makes the effect useful in
a wide number of systems.

REFERENCES
1. Huang, C. Y. and Daehn, G. S.. Acta metall., 1996, 44,
1035.
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Ibid. p. 45.
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