FIBER-REINFORCED METALS AND ALLOYS

This report describes the work done on the mechanisms of strengthening and deformation, and the fracture behavior of composites of tungsten-silver and steel-silver with both short aligned fivers as well as long continuous fibers. Investigations indicate that with short discontinuous aligned fibers in a composite, only a fraction of the fiber strength is realized. The ductile-to-brittle transition found in steel-silver composites was also found in tungsten-silver composites. The fracture energy measurements were most helpful in clarifying this ductile-to-brittle behavior and the analysis of the fracture modes.