A computational and experimental study on the effective properties of Al₂O₃-Ni composites

It has been demonstrated that effective medium approximation and mean field homogenization technique is a useful computational tool to predict the effective thermal and structural properties of alumina-nickel (Al₂O₃-Ni) composites. Nickel particle size and volume fraction, thermal interface resistance and porosity are found significant factors that affect thermal conductivity, elastoplastic behavior, elastic modulus and thermal expansion coefficient of Al₂O₃-Ni composite. To complement the computational design, Al₂O₃-Ni composite samples with designed range of volume fractions and nickel particle size are developed using spark plasma sintering process and properties are measured for model verification.