MANUFACTURING OF ALUMINIUM METAL MATRIX CAST COMPOSITES WITH CARBON BASED ADDITIVES FOR THERMAL MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS
2CIRI-MAM, Interdepartmental Center of Industrial Research, University of Bologna, Bologna
3TUC, Technische Universität Chemnitz, Chemnitz
4Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa
This work focuses on the production of new high conductive carbon based MMC (Metal Matrix Composites) or co-cast components obtained by casting processes. These novel thermally conductive structures are designed to face modern heat management challenges in critical fields such as power micro-electronics, e-mobility and (renewable) energy generation as well as highest performance combustion engines. The sought parts will be assembled by different heat conductive aluminum-carbon composites and for this reason different heat conductive MMCs have been studied. The three main pillars are the aluminum matrix, medium heat conductive with isotropic thermal properties and highly conductive and un-isotropic phase. The combination of these MMCs into once cast Aluminum part will allow the part to meet applicative needs for heat management challenges.
Some preliminary empirical and numerical results are presented in this article. The thermal behaviour of the obtained materials has been studied by means of theoretical (EMA - Effective Medium Approximation) and numerical (FEM - Finite Element Methods) approaches in order to determine the effective thermal conductivity in the different directions of heat dissipation. Different Aluminum-Carbon MMCs are investigated for their thermal and properties, namely aluminum-graphite strips, and aluminum with particles additives.
The effects of thermal resistance at the interfaces between matrix and inserts have been considered in order to numerically evaluate influence of casting process parameters which determines the quality of interfaces between the different materials of composites.
The numerical results have been validated by direct thermal conductivity measurements on samples of the obtained materials by means of a thermofluximeter instrument (NanoFlash Light Flash System).
This work was carried out within the research activities financed by EU Commission through FP7 THERMACO Project under Grant Agreement n. 608978.
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