Introduction to Metal Matrix Composites

Materials with high specific strength and stiffness have seen an increasing demand for various applications that thrive on light weighting, better fuel efficiency, and higher pay load. This has necessitated the development of a class of materials known as composites. Composite materials have received wide acceptance owing to their greater potential for use as components/products with high specific strength, stiffness, enhanced wear resistance, and better high temperature properties compared to monolithic metals and alloys. Further, they can be tailor-made to satisfy specific design requirements in a variety of applications. Composite can be broadly defined as a material system, which comprises of a discrete phase (called reinforcement) dispersed in a continuous phase (called matrix), and which derives combination of properties, not attainable by the constituents individually, from the properties, geometry and architecture of the constituents, and from the properties of the interfaces between them.