Elasticity and inelasticity of the SiC/Al–13Si–9Mg biomorphic metal ceramics

The acoustic investigations of the elastic (Young’s modulus) and microplastic properties of a composite material, the SiC/Al–13Si–9Mg biomorphic metal ceramic, were performed. The ceramic was prepared by infiltration of the Al–13Si–9Mg melt into porous silicon carbide derived from wood of two species of trees, beech and sapele. The measurements were performed with a composite piezoelectric vibrator under resonance conditions, with rod-shaped samples vibrated longitudinally at about 100 kHz over a wide range of vibrational strain amplitudes, which included both the linear (amplitude-independent) and nonlinear (microplastic) regions. It was shown that the Young’s modulus and the microplastic properties of the composite are anisotropic and depend substantially on the tree species, particularly when longitudinal vibrations are excited in samples cut along the tree fibers.