Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Deformation and Fracture Mode of Microcantilever Beams Made of Cr(Re)/Al2O3 Metal–Matrix Composite

This work presents a combined experimental and computational study of the deformation and fracture of microcantilever specimens made of chromium(rhenium)-alumina metal–matrix composite (MMC), with a particular focus on the failure properties of the metal–ceramic interfaces. The obtained experimental results show that the bending strength of microcantilevers containing alumina particles in critical cross-sections near specimen’s fixed end is considerably higher than that of unreinforced chromium(rhenium) samples. Brittle cracking along chromium–alumina interfaces is the dominant fracture mode of the composite microcantilevers. The interface characteristics are determined in an indirect way by numerical simulations of the experiment with account of the actual specimen microstructure from the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. A parametric study demonstrates that the overall material response may be reproduced by different sets of model parameters, whereas the actual failure mode permits to discriminate among the possible alternatives. Using this approach, the in situ values of the chromium–alumina interface cohesive strength and the fracture energy are estimated.