The Science and Engineering of Materials:

Ch 17 Exercise

Skills Learned: Fiber composites and the Rule of Mixtures to estimate composite properties
Problem:
1. Borsic fibers occupy 30 vol% of a Borsic ASTM Grade 2 titanium composite. The
fibers have a density of 2.36 g/cm
3
, a Modulus of Elasticity of 3.79x10
5
MPa and a
tensile strength of 2.76x10
6
MPa.
Use the Rule of Mixtures to estimate the density, modulus of elasticity and tensile
strength of the composite parallel to the fiber. Compare the composite values with pure
titanium. (Assume titanium has a density of 4.51 g/cm
3
, a modulus of elasticity of
1.068x10
5
MPa, and a tensile strength of 276 MPa).

Solution:
1. Use the fielded search on Knovel to find physical properties of Boron and Titanium.
Search Rule of Mixtures and open the first retrieved title, Fundamentals of Metal-
Matrix Composites. The first section retrieved will explain the Rule of Mixtures in Fiber-
Reinforced Composites. The rule of mixtures is used to estimate physical properties of a
composite material.



Now calculating each of the composite properties:

( )( ) ( )( )
3
3 3
/ 86 . 3
/ 51 . 4 7 . 0 / 36 . 2 3 . 0
cm g
cm g cm g
c c
composite
composite
Ti Ti Borsic Borsic composite
=
+ =
+ =

( )( ) ( )( )
MPa x E
MPa x MPa x E
E c E c E
composite
composite
Ti Ti Borsic Borsic composite
5
5 5
10 88 . 1
10 068 . 1 7 . 0 10 79 . 3 3 . 0
=
+ =
+ =



( )( ) ( )( )
MPa x
MPa MPa x
c c
composite TS
composite TS
Ti TS Ti Borsic TS Borsic composite TS
5
6
10 28 . 8
276 7 . 0 10 76 . 2 3 . 0
=
+ =
+ =

Adding Borsic fibers decreases the density while increasing the elastic modulus and
tensile strength.

Density
(g/cm
3
)
Youngs Modulus
(MPa)
Tensile
Strength (MPa)
Borsic 2.36 3.79x10
5
2.76x10
6

Titanium 4.51 1.068x10
5
276
Borsic-
Titanium
composite 3.86 1.88x10
5
8.28x10
5