Two techniques which rely on direct microstructural measurements to assess the quality of the spatial distribution of reinforcements in metal matrix composites are outlined in the present paper. The first technique is based on the measurement of the distribution of interparticle spacings of the reinforcement, and the second is based on the Dirichlet tessellation construction. Both techniques are applied to Al–4Cu/20SiCp (wt-%) metal matrix composites produced via a powder metallurgy route. The results show that the widths of the interparticle spacing and Dirichlet cell size distributions are afunction of the level of microstructural homogeneity. The techniques are not sufficiently sensitive to small variations in spatial distribution.
MST/2081
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