Functionally graded aluminium alloy

The research on functionally graded materials is encouraged by the need for properties that are unavailable in any single material and the need for graded properties to offset adverse effects of discontinuities for layered materials. Centrifugal casting is a very common method for obtaining functionally graded materials, mainly composite materials or metallic materials which has high differences of density and low solubility on different phases or different materials of the same alloy. The present work is emphasizing the fact that the centrifugal process could be successfully used for obtaining functionally graded materials also for metallic materials (alloys) with moderate solubility and small differences of density of the different phases, as is the case of most aluminum alloys. This study intends to assess also the problem of fatigue life prediction by establishing a relation within some of the characteristics of the micro structural features of studied aluminium silicon alloys such as: micropores, SDAS, volume fractions of phases the size of silicon lamellas in interdendritic eutectic regions and the size and shape of silicon particles.