Numerical Prediction of Effective Transformation Properties of Hybrid SMA-Ceramic Composites

Metal-ceramic composites are being increasingly explored in an effort to find new materials for use in extreme environments. Via functional grading of of the volume fraction of the constituant phases and other techniques, the material can be optimized to incorporate the mechanical properties of the metal phase with the thermal properties of the ceramic phase. To get further benefit of the metal phase, a new area being investigated is the incorporation of Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs). In order to predict the phase transformation features of an SMA embedded in a stiff ceramic matrix, a micromechanical approach is developed to find the effective phase diagram of the ceramic-SMA composite. From this analysis, other composite characteristics such as stress in each phase and the evolution of tranformation strain in the SMA can be determined in order to improve the design of such new composite materials.