Karbon nanotüp takviyeli alüminyum matrisli kompozit malzeme üretimi ve özelliklerinin incelenmesi

Nanotechnology studies have become widespread and important in terms of contribution in multidisciplinary research areas in recent years. Carbon nanotubes have been known as the strongest and stiffest materials discovered in terms of strength and elastic modulus, respectively. For that reason, the usage of carbon nanotubes as reinforcements in composites has become vital.Until today, great deals of carbon nanotube reinforced polymer matrix composite fabrication studies were carried out. However, very few studies are performed in carbon nanotube reinforced metal matrix composite fabrication area because of the difficulties such as wetting of carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotube reinforced aluminum composite studies started at the end of 90?s. Above all, most of the studies were related to powder metallurgy techniques, which require expensive tooling and much production time. Consequently, there is still an important deficiency in casting of carbon nanotube reinforced aluminum matrix composites.The aim of this study is to fabricate carbon nanotube reinforced aluminum matrix composites by using an economic fabrication technique different than the studies in the literature. In this regard, carbon nanotube reinforced aluminum matrix composite fabrication is successfully carried out by vacuum assisted infiltration method with the use of carbon nanotube containing preform as reinforcement. In addition, two different types of preforms are used in this study to investigate the enhancement of dispersion with the addition of aluminum powder into the preform. First of all, strengthening effect of carbon nanotubes in compressive loads are investigated for fabricated composites and compared with the calculated prediction model results. The trend in compressive strength results is also supported with microhardness measurements. Furthermore, phase analysis and microstructures of fabricated composites are investigated and success of the method reported.As a result, a new and economic fabrication process for the fabrication of carbon nanotube reinforced aluminum matrix composite materials is performed. Overall, the reinforcement of 6063 aluminum matrix composite with carbon nanotube reinforcement increased yield and compressive strength of the composites in direct proportion to nanotube ratio. This can be explained with various strengthening mechanism models.