Analyses of thermal expansion behavior of intergranular two-phase composites

Both analytical modeling and numerical simulations were performed to analyz e residual thermal stresses and coefficients of thermal expansion (CTEs) of intergranular two-phase composites in a two-dimensional sense. A composite -circle model was adopted for analytical modeling. Model microstructures co nsisting of square-array, hexagon-array, and brick wall-array of grains wit h an intergranular phase as well as an actual microstructure of random-arra y grains with an intergranular phase were adopted for numerical simulations . The results showed that in predicting CTEs, the simple analytical model r epresents the two-dimensional composite well except that with brick wall-ar ray grains, which induced significant anisotropic CTEs in the composite. Th e residual thermal stresses in composites were also discussed. (C) 2001 Klu wer Academic Publishers.