Yan Li¹, Jun Cao², Cyril Williams³; ¹Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, ²California State University, Long Beach, ³US Army Research Laboratory

The development of high performance MMCs requires careful microstructure design which can improve fracture toughness while maintaining high strength. In metal matrix composite materials, reinforcement cracking and interface debonding are two competing failure mechanisms observed during the crack-reinforcements interactions. In this paper, we propose an integrated computational and experimental framework which elucidates the competing failure mechanisms by considering the effect of microstructure and loading conditions. The systematic studies focus on Al/SiC metal matrix composites. The cohesive parameters employed in the computational models are calibrated through Digital Image Correlation analysis.