Influence of gradient distribution of boron carbide particles in aluminum bronze-based composite on its mechanical properties

To enhance the functional properties of aluminum bronze, different reinforcing inclusions may be used to produce metal matrix composite. In this study, we proposed a numerical model to investigate the influence of different spatial distributions of boron carbide particles in the bronze matrix on such mechanical properties as tensile strength and hardness. The model is based on the method of movable cellular automata, which is a representative of computational particle mechanics and allows considering the composite structure explicitly. The simulation results show that introducing boron carbide inclusions into aluminum bronze matrix leads to enhancing the hardness and tensile strength but reducing the ultimate strain in tension. The gradient distribution of the inclusion fraction with the maximum value on the surface allows getting higher hardness than the uniform distribution. The size of the reinforcing particles has no great influence, while the volume fraction and type of spatial distribution are of great importance for the mechanical properties considered in this study. It is also shown that boron carbide inclusions serve as a source of crack initiation under mechanical loading.