Thermo-mechanical behavior and material failure of steel wire reinforced aluminum

Extruded steel wire reinforced aluminum is a novel, discretely reinforced metal matrix composite. Variation of the wire volume content can alter the mechanical properties, particularly stiffness and strength. Introduced by the compound extrusion process, thermally induced residual stresses affect the mechanical properties and need to be taken into account. Homogenization approaches and a mode-based failure criterion are presented to describe the wire reinforced aluminum efficiently for computational strength analysis. Further, assessing the material's behavior subjected to impact loads, the material is described with regards to high plastic strains and strain rates, material failure and fracture at complex stress states. The material model is calibrated based on experimental testing and validated by a three-point bending test of an extruded, reinforced section, showing good agreement between experimental and simulated force-displacement curves as well as in fracture patterns.