Materials 2009, 2, 958-977; doi:10.

3390/ma2030958

materials
ISSN 1996-1944
www.mdpi.com/journal/materials
Review

Design, Fabrication, and Properties of High Damping Metal
Matrix CompositesA Review

Hui Lu, Xianping Wang, Tao Zhang, Zhijun Cheng and Qianfeng Fang *

Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Hefei 230031, China; E-Mails: luhui@mail.ustc.edu.cn (H.L.); xpwang@issp.ac.cn (X.W.);
zhangtao@issp.ac.cn (T.Z.); zjcheng@issp.ac.cn (Z.C.)

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: qffang@issp.ac.cn (Q.F.);
Tel. +86-551-5591459; Fax: +86-551-5591434

Received: 30 July 2009; in revised form: 14 August 2009 / Accepted: 17 August 2009 /
Published: 18 August 2009


Abstract: Nowadays it is commonly considered that high damping materials which have
both the good mechanical properties as structural materials and the high damping capacity
for vibration damping are the most direct vibration damping solution. In metals and alloys
however, exhibiting simultaneously high damping capacity and good mechanical properties
has been noted to be normally incompatible because the microscopic mechanisms
responsible for internal friction (namely damping capacity) are dependent upon the
parameters that control mechanical strength. To achieve a compromise, one of the most
important methods is to develop two-phase composites, in which each phase plays a specific
role: damping or mechanical strength. In this review, we have summarized the development
of the design concept of high damping composite materials and the investigation of their
fabrication and properties, including mechanical and damping properties, and suggested a
new design concept of high damping composite materials where the hard ceramic additives
exhibit high damping capacity at room temperature owing to the stress-induced reorientation
of high density point defects in the ceramic phases and the high damping capacity of the
composite comes mainly from the ceramic phases.

Keywords: metal matrix composite; high damping; internal friction

OPEN ACCESS
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959
1. Introduction

The damping capacity of a material is an evaluation of the energy dissipated in the material during
mechanical vibration. High damping materials, which possess the ability to dissipate mechanical
vibration energy, are valuable in the application fields of noise control and for stabilizing structures to
suppress mechanical vibrations and attenuate wave propagation [1-4]. Practical applications need low
density materials that simultaneously exhibit a high damping capacity and good mechanical properties.
However, in metals these properties are often incompatible, due to the dependence of the microscopic
mechanisms involved in strengthening and damping. Therefore, it would be of interest to develop new
materials that simultaneously exhibit good mechanical properties and high damping [3,5]. This is
possible only when the microscopic mechanisms responsible for dissipation of the vibration energy are
independent of that of the hardening and strengthening. Such a compromise can be achieved by the
development of two-phase composites, in which each phase plays a specific role: damping or providing
mechanical strength. Metal matrix composites (MMCs) are good candidates because firstly, MMC
processing allows the possibility of tailoring the resultant damping properties by selecting high damping
reinforcements, secondly, MMC processing modifies the microstructure of metals and alloys, thus
introducing energy dissipation sources [1,6], and thirdly, typically hard and high strength
reinforcements will improve the mechanical properties of the composites.
The damping behaviors of MMCs can be attributed to thermal mismatch-induced dislocation
damping, interface damping, interaction damping and the rule of mixtures damping. Briefly, an
enhanced dislocation density due to the thermal mismatch between reinforcements and matrix increases
energy dissipation sources; the sliding of the interfaces between the reinforcements and matrix dissipates
energy under cyclic loading; interactions between reinforcements and dislocations or grain boundaries
may lead to changes in damping response, such as dislocation pinning or viscous sliding of grain
boundaries; the intrinsic damping of the reinforcements may be independent of that of the matrix
material, which leading to a rule of mixtures effect on the overall damping behavior [1,6,7].
In this review, the main achievements during the past decades were summarized, with an emphasis on
the design, fabrication, characterization and performance of high damping MMCs. Finally, a new
design concept of high damping composite materials is suggested.

2. Design of High Damping Metal Matrix Composites

Metal matrix composites (MMCs), like most composite materials, provide significantly enhanced
properties compared to conventional monolithic materials, such as higher strength, stiffness, hardness,
creep resistance, weight savings, etc. The strengthening mechanisms of MMCs may be divided into two
categories: classical composite strengthening mechanisms and dislocation punching strengthening
mechanisms. The former refers to the fact that the applied load is transferred from the softer matrix,
across the matrix/reinforcement interface, to the typically higher stiffness reinforcements, which carry
much of the applied load. The later refers to that the high thermal mismatch between the metallic matrix
and the ceramic reinforcement induces dislocations in the matrix near the reinforcement/matrix interface
upon cooling. The dislocation punching results in the strengthening of the matrix [8-11]. The design
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philosophy of high damping MMCs should give consideration to both the damping mechanism and the
strengthening mechanisms.
The reinforcements in a composite can take either discontinuous (particulates, platelets, whiskers or
chopped fibers) or continuous (typically long fibers) form. Continuous fiber reinforcements may
provide the most effective strengthening (in a given direction), while particulate reinforced materials are
more attractive owing to their cost-effectiveness, and isotropic properties. In this section, emphasis will
be placed on the later. In view of the special properties of nano-scaled materials, the nano-scaled
dispersoids reinforced MMCs will be discussed separately.

2.1. Discontinuously reinforced high damping MMCs

Discontinuously reinforced MMCs have attracted considerable attention because of their feasibility
for mass production, promising mechanical properties and potential high damping capacity. In
particular, discontinuously reinforced aluminum alloy MMCs provide high damping and low density
and allow undesirable mechanical vibration and wave propagation to be suppressed [6].
Discontinuous reinforcements include carbides, nitrides, borides, oxides, and simple substance of
carbon, among which SiC [12-20], Al
2
O
3
[21-23] and graphite [12,24-27] particulates are the most
frequently used. As an example, SiC, as derived from rice hulls, is relatively inexpensive and can be
produced in large quantities [28]. Lavernia et al. [6] demonstrated that adding SiC or Al
2
O
3
particulates
into the aluminum matrix could provide substantial gains in specific stiffness and strength, while the
resulting changes in damping capacity were either positive or negative. Graphite particulates could
produce a remarkable increase in damping capacity, but at the expense of stiffness. Wei et al. [24,27]
also pointed out that the damping capacity of the macroscopic graphite particulates reinforced pure
aluminum composite is increased with a larger volume fraction of the reinforcements, however, this is
accompanied with a decrease in dynamic modulus. Rohatgi et al. [29] investigated the damping capacity
of graphite and silicon carbide particulate reinforced Al alloy composites. As expected, the damping
capacity of graphite/Al alloy composites increased with the volume percentage of graphite within the
range studied. However, no obvious improvements in damping capacity were observed by dispersion of
silicon carbide in aluminum alloy. In contrast, Srikanth and Gupta [14] reported that the damping
capacity of the pure magnesium matrix was improved in the presence of SiC particulates, and increased
with the increase of the proportion of SiC particulates. SiC whisker reinforced MMCs have shown more
attractive combinations of strength, fracture toughness, and thermal stability than the
particulate-reinforced MMCs. However, extensive application of these MMCs has been limited as a
result of production costs and health hazards. Moreover, from the standpoint of developing high
damping materials, SiC whisker reinforced Al alloy MMCs do not exhibit improved damping capacity
than that of unreinforced aluminum alloys [6].
Ceramic hollow sphere fly ash (FA) particulates (with enclosed porosities) is another kind of
interesting reinforcement, which is inexpensive, low density and available in large quantities as solid
waste by-product during combustion of coal in thermal power plants. Wu et al. [30] investigated the
damping properties of the hollow sphere fly ash/6061Al composites. The damping capacity of the
FA/6061Al composite can reach 3.2 10
2
, which is in the high damping capacity level. Sudarshan and
Surappa [31] also showed that fly ash/A356 MMCs, with proper volume fraction of fly ash particulates,
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961
exhibited improved ambient temperature damping capacity, as well as the hardness, elastic modulus, and
0.2% proof stress, compared to unreinforced alloy. However, the tensibility decreases, owing to the
presence of pores and decrease in the volume fraction of ductile matrix.
Shape memory alloys (SMAs) have attracted considerable attention due to their excellent damping
capacity and high mechanical properties. The twin boundaries in martensite can be easily moved by an
external stress to accommodate the strain, which is believed to be responsible for the high damping of
TiNi based alloys [32]. It has been experimentally and analytically demonstrated that SMA particulates
or fibers in a non-SMA metal matrix can enhance the damping capacity of the composite, as well as
some other unique properties or functions such as self-strengthening, active modal modification,
damage resistance and control [33-38]. For instance, Yamada et al. [33] proposed the concept to
strengthen the aluminum MMCs by the shape-memory effect of dispersed TiNi SMA particulates.
Because the martensite phase of SMAs has a comparatively high loss factor, an improvement in the
damping capacity of the SMA particulate-reinforced composites is expected at the martensite stage.
Consistent with the aforementioned work, Thorat et al. [39] showed that addition of NiTi particulates
increased the damping capacity as well as the precipitation kinetics of AA2124 composites compared
with the base AA2124. San Juan and No [40] developed a new kind of high damping metal matrix
composites, based on powders of CuAlNi shape memory alloys (SMAs) embedded in an indium
matrix. The damping is enhanced in all the temperature range, and especially at the peak (70 C) reaches
tan = 0.54 at 0.01 Hz. However, the damping decreases dramatically with increasing frequency, and
reaches 0.07 at 1 Hz, as shown in Figure 1. Similar work has been done by them and their
coworkers [41], with the alternative In-Sn alloy matrix. The value of damping (tan ) is also more than
0.5 at low frequencies. The authors claimed that the high damping capacity was caused by the
synergetic effect between the damping of the shape memory alloy and the damping of the matrix alloy.
However, no mechanical properties were reported in their work and should be quite low owing to the
soft In-Sn alloy matrix. On the other hand, the high damping capacity mainly coming from the shape
memory alloys only occurs at the phase transformation temperature and decreases dramatically with
increasing frequency, a stable damping capacity could not be expected in such composite materials.
Piezoelectric materials polarize along specific crystal directions and induce electric charges on the
surfaces when stress is applied. It is expected that energy dissipation would occur by shunting the
induced electric charges. Piezoelectric ceramics have been used in high damping MMCs, with the
damping mechanism related to piezoelectric effects. Yoshida et al. [42] investigated the damping
mechanism of metal-piezoelectric ceramic composites. The research indicated that piezoelectric ceramic
PbTiO reinforced Cu composite exhibited three to five times higher damping capacity than the pure Cu.
The matrix materials of MMCs can be various, such as alloys based on aluminum, magnesium, iron,
titanium, zinc, copper, zirconium, nickel, tin, lead, and other pure metals. Ferromagnetic alloy is another
kind of damping material, which provides damping through the magnetomechanical mechanism (i.e.,
movement of the magnetic domain boundaries during vibration). Specially, SMA and ferromagnetic
alloy are used as the matrix of high damping MMCs, beyond the most frequently used aluminum and
magnesium alloy. Graphite particulates/CuAlMn [43], magnetic powders/SMA matrix composites, such
as Fe-Cr, Fe-Cr-Al and Fe-Al flake reinforced Cu-Zn-Al matrix, show a high passive-damping
capacity [44].
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As is well known, some mechanical properties of materials are dependent of the reinforcement
geometry (particulates vs. whiskers) and orientation (perpendicular vs. parallel), which researchers have
studied systematically [45]. However, an understanding of the correlation between material damping
and the reinforcements has eluded investigators, partly as a result of the fact that various mechanisms are
involved [1].

Figure 1. Internal friction spectra of Cu-Al-Ni particulates reinforced indium matrix
composite at 0.01 Hz (circles), 0.03 Hz (triangles), 0.1 Hz (squares) and 1 Hz (stars) [40].


2.2. Nano-scaled dispersoids reinforced high damping MMCs

Nano-scaled reinforcements (particulates or whiskers) can increase the specific modulus and other
mechanical properties of MMCs [46]. As an example, Peng and Zhu [47] showed that MMCs
reinforced by combining nano-scaled dispersoids with micro-sized particulate or whisker
reinforcements present improved mechanical properties, for nano-scaled dispersoids can remarkably
increase the high temperature strength of MMCs. However, there is not much analytical and
experimental work reported on the effect of nano-scaled reinforcements on the damping capacity of
MMCs.
Kireitseu et al. [48] demonstrated that carbon nanotubes (CNT) employed to reinforce MMC were
able to enhance structural damping as well as composite stiffness. Advanced mobility of nanotubes
results in advanced strength and vibration damping properties in a wide range of frequency and
temperature. Interfacial fracture energy between nanoparticle and matrix plays a great role for a total
energy dissipated by the damping material. Yang and Schaller [49], however, pointed out that in the
CNT reinforced magnesium matrix composites, the thermal mismatch at the interface in the CNT
composites was greatly reduced owing to the size reduction of reinforcements and thus the transient
damping was of lower intensity. Therefore, whether CNT could act as an appropriate reinforcement in
high damping MMCs is still an open question.
Materials 2009, 2


963
Deng [50] showed that multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were a promising reinforcement
for metal matrix composites to obtain high damping capabilities at an elevated temperature without
sacrificing the mechanical strength and stiffness of a metal matrix. The damping capacity of MWNTs
reinforced 2024Al composite reaches 0.0975 (which was wrongly written as 0.975 in the literature) and
the storage modulus is 82.3 GPa at 0.5 Hz and 400 C.
Nano-scaled Al
2
O
3
particulate is another kind of researched reinforcement. Srikanth et al. [4]
synthesized the nano-scaled Al
2
O
3
particulate reinforced Mg matrix composites, and studied the
damping capacity, elastic modulus and hardness, as listed in Table 1. They also agreed to the increase in
damping with the presence of nano-scaled particulates, which can be attributed to simultaneous
influence of various intrinsic and extrinsic damping mechanisms.
Nanotechnology could potentially be used to fabricate advanced materials with superior dynamic
properties such as damping behavior at wider frequency and temperature ranges, as well as improved
mechanical properties such as stiffness. However, the damping property of nano-scaled material is
mostly unknown and requires extensive investigations.

Table 1. Damping capacity, elastic modulus and hardness of Mg and nano-Al
2
O
3
/Mg [4].
Wt.% of Al
2
O
3
Loss factor
Dynamic modulus
(GPa)
Hardness (HV)
0 0.0085 39.52 39.6 2.1
1.0 0.0115 41.29 52.3 1.1

2.3. Fiber reinforced high damping MMCs

As mentioned in the previous section, SMA fibers, as well as particulates, can be used as
reinforcements of MMCs, resulting in enhanced damping capacity, as well as some other properties. For
instance, the damping capacity of the TiNi fiber Al matrix composite was measured by using a uniaxial
vibration method, and the results indicated that the damping capacity (tan ) of the composite in the
temperature range of 270-450 K was substantially improved over the unreinforced aluminum [51]. It
was found that the factors such as SMA fiber volume fraction, the fiber orientation and the stacking
sequence of SMA composites have strong influences on the specific damping capacity (SDC) and on the
natural frequencies of the SMA hybrid composites and structures [37].
Mayencourt and Schaller [5] have found that Mg-2 wt% Si alloys reinforced with long carbon fibers
exhibited a specific Youngs modulus of about 200 GPa with a damping capacity of 0.01 at a strain
amplitude of 10
-5
. They also studied the high damping magnesium matrix reinforced with Mg
2
Si fibers
and draw a conclusion that the mechanical strength can be optimized without reducing the damping
capacity. In their research, the Mg
2
Si/Mg composites were processed by unidirectional solidification of
Mg-2 wt% Si alloy. The c-axis orientation of pure magnesium matrix provided a high damping capacity
over a wide range of temperatures and the unidirectional fibers enhanced the mechanical strength up to
that of some industrial magnesium cast alloys such as AZ63. Since these mechanisms are independent,
the high damping capacity and the high mechanical strength can be reached in these composites, without
regard of the complex interaction between dislocations and point defects [52].
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964
Recently, however, Chowdhury et al. [53] found that in the carbon fiber reinforced magnesium based
MMCs, with the metallic matrix unidirectionally oriented with respect to the matrix-reinforcement
interface by unidirectional solidification technology and metallic matrix without orientation by
infiltration method only, the damping was lower in the orientated specimen than in the as infiltrated one
in all the temperature range. In the former case, the basal slip plane is nearly perpendicular to the
interface normal, strongly reducing the coupling between the thermal stress along the interface and the
mechanical stress from the torsion test. Meanwhile, some researches indicate that the damping behavior
of continuous graphite fiber reinforced magnesium alloy is inferior to the unreinforced MMC [54]. As a
summary, the design concepts, targets, and deficiencies for some MMCs are listed in Table 2, while the
details of Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12
additives and the related MMCs will be described in Section 5.

Table 2. Design concepts, target, and deficiencies for some MMCs.
Reinforcements
in MMC
Design concepts
(aim at reinforcements)
Targets Deficiencies
SiC, Al
2
O
3

Make use of the high
stiffness and strength
Improved specific stiffness
and strength
Whether the damping capacity
can be improved is ambiguous
Graphite
Make use of the high
damping capacity
Improved damping
capacity
Deteriorated stiffness
Fly ash
Make use of the hollow
ceramic structure
Improved ambient
temperature damping,
hardness, stiffness
Deteriorated tensibility
SMAs
Make use of the high
damping capacity and
mechanical properties
Improved damping
capacity and some
functions as SMA has
High damping capacity only
occurs at the phase
transformation temperature and
decreases dramatically with
increasing frequency
Piezoelectric
ceramics
Make use of piezoelectric
effects
Improved damping
capacity
Related research is deficient
Nano-scaled
dispersoids
Make use of the effect of
particulate size
Improved mechanical
properties
Whether the damping capacity
can be improved is ambiguous
Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12

Make use of the damping
mechanism of point
defects, and the hardness
of the ceramics
Improved damping
capacity and mechanical
performance at room
temperature
Further study is underway

3. Fabrication of High Damping MMCs

Traditional processes for fabricating MMCs include powder metallurgy, spray deposition,
mechanical alloying and various casting techniques [8,55-60], which are also used in the case of high
damping MMCs, with a wide range of matrix materials (aluminum, magnesium, titanium, copper, nickel
and iron) and reinforcements (carbides, nitrides, borides, oxides and carbon). In the following
subsection, we only give an overview and outline the chief features of the main methods.
Ibrahim et al. [8] suggested that the processing methods utilized to manufacture particulate
reinforced MMCs can be grouped according to the temperature of the metallic matrix during processing,
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965
such as liquid phase processes, solid state processes, and two phase processes. Here, we follow this
categorization to classify methods for the fabrication of various high damping MMCs.

3.1. Solid state processes

The powder metallurgy (PM) process involves steps including: powders sieving, blending, pressing,
degassing and consolidation. The PM methods have been successfully applied to a large number of
metal/ceramic combinations. In terms of microstructural requirement, the PM approach is superior in
view of the rapid powder solidification. This allows the development of novel matrix materials outside
the compositional limits dictated by equilibrium thermodynamics in conventional solidification
processes. The main deficiencies of this process are complex processing, relatively high cost and hard
controlling. As a variant of PM, powder injection molding (PIM) is a near net-shape manufacturing
technology that combines the shaping effect of plastic injection molding with the potential of powder
metallurgy for working over metal and ceramic powders [61,62]. The process involves four steps:
mixing, injection molding, debinding (dewaxing) and sintering. One of the evolutional variations of the
PIM technology is metal injection molding. It is applicable for the fabrication of composites with
discontinuous reinforcements, typically particulates, whiskers or short fibers. The process offers
advantages for the mass production of small and complex parts such as low production cost, near
net-shape, geometric complexity, good tolerance and reproducibility. Additionally, it can control the
orientation of the fibers when fabricating short fibers reinforced MMCs. However, this process suffers
from obstacles including the need for fine spherical powders and proper selection of binder [63]. High
damping MMCs have been fabricated by PM, for instance, Fe-Cr flakes/Cu-Zn-Al composites [44] and
nano-Al
2
O
3
/Mg [4].

3.2. Liquid phase processes

Liquid phase processes refers to that the reinforcements are incorporated into a molten metallic
matrix using various fabrication techniques, including liquid metal-discontinuous reinforcements
mixing, melt infiltration and melt oxidation processes. For the basic aspects of the solidification and
casting techniques, the reader can refer to [64].
In liquid metal-discontinuous reinforcements mixing process, it is necessary either adding wetting
agents to the melt or coating the ceramic particulates prior to mixing, for most ceramic materials cannot
be wetted by the molten alloys. In this process, a strong bond between the matrix and the reinforcement
is formed owing to the high processing temperatures. This process has reached an advanced stage of
development, while some difficulties exist, including: agglomeration of the ceramic particulates during
agitation, settling of particulates, segregation of secondary phases in the metallic matrix, extensive
interfacial reactions and particulate fracture during mechanical agitation. High damping MMCs have
been made by using this method or variants of it (disintegration melt deposition), such as Al
2
O
3
/Al
alloy [21,22,65], graphite/Al alloy [29], SiC/Al alloy [29], SiC
p
/Al-Li [17], SiC/Mg [18], fly ash/Al
alloy [31].
In melt infiltration processes, a molten alloy is introduced into a fiber preform or a porous ceramic,
utilizing either inert gas or a mechanical device as a pressurizing medium. This approach has been
Materials 2009, 2


966
commercialized. Some of the drawbacks of this process include reinforcement damage, coarse grain size
and undesirable interfacial reactions. Various high damping MMCs have been made by using this
method, such as TiNi/Al [51], SiC/Mg-2-wt%-Si [5], C/Mg-2-wt%-Si [5,66], graphite/Al [24],
(SiC
p
+Al
2
O
3
SiO
2f
)/Mg [15], SiC/Al [19,67], SiC/Mg [67], Al
2
O
3
/Mg alloy [23], graphite/Zn-Al
alloy [27], and carbon fiber/Mg [53].

3.3. Two-phase processes

In the spray deposition process, the reinforcement particulates are introduced into the stream of
molten alloy which is subsequently atomized by jets of inert gas and collected on a substrate in the form
of a reinforced metal matrix billet. Products with excellent properties can be synthesized using this
method. However, the main drawback of this method is high cost. High damping MMCs have been
made by using this method, such as SiC, graphite or both of them reinforced Al or Al alloy, Mg or Mg
alloy [6,12,16,25,68].
Variable co-deposition of multi-phase materials (VCM) processing is another two-phase process.
The matrix metal is disintegrated into a fine dispersion of droplets using high velocity gas jets.
Simultaneously, one or more jets of strengthening phases are injected into the atomized spray at a
prescribed spatial location where the droplets contain a limited amount of volume fraction of liquid.
Hence, contact time and thermal exposure of the particulates with the partially solidified matrix are
minimized, and can be controlled. In addition, tight control of the environment during processing
minimizes the oxidation of the matrix.

4. Damping Behavior of Al, Mg Based MMCs

Light weight metallic materials such as Al and Mg, are getting popular in the design of dynamic
mechanical systems in semiconductor equipments, aerospace and defense related industries. Mg is more
preferred for its low density of 1.74 g/cc than Al (2.7 g/cc), while the static stiffness of magnesium,
measured in terms of elastic modulus, remains at about 40 GPa, which is well below that of Al
(70 GPa) [69]. Hence Mg and Al have similar specific stiffness [4]. In addition, magnesium possesses
better damping characteristics than any other light weight metals, which helps in dissipating the stored
strain energy in the components [14]. This section will focus on Mg and Al matrix composite with
further improved inherent damping capacity and stiffness that will promote their usage in various
engineering applications.
The damping properties are deduced from mechanical spectroscopy measurements. Quantitative
comparison of the damping capacity of materials is difficult, because of the differences in testing method
(torsion pendulum methods [5,21,24,27,30,39,42,52,53,67], suspended beam method [4,14,16,18,29],
dynamic mechanical thermal analyzer technique [12,15,17,19,22,25,31], Piezoelectric ultrasonic
composite oscillator technique), exciting mode (impulse excitation [4,16,18], forced
vibration [24,27,30,67], free decay [5,23,39], resonant vibration [30]), testing parameters (temperature,
the loading frequency, strain amplitude) [70,71], and specimen configuration (wire, rod, sheet). On the
other hand, measures of damping capacity include loss angle (), loss tangent (tan ), inverse quality
factor (Q
-1
), loss factor (), logarithmic decrement () and specific damping capacity (SDC, ). They are
Materials 2009, 2


967
interchangeable with a proper conversion in cases of relatively small damping capacity (tan < 0.1) by
the following equation:
tan = Q
-1
= = /2 /
(1)

4.1. Damping behavior and mechanisms in Al, Al alloy and Al based MMCs

In general, Al alloys exhibit a relatively low damping capacity. MMC techniques provide
modifications to the matrix microstructure including reinforcement/matrix interfaces and dislocations in
the matrix induced by thermal mismatch strain. Damping capacities of some frequently used particulate
reinforcements, such as graphite (Gr), Al
2
O
3
, SiC, and Si
3
N
4
, are listed in Table 3.
Zhang et al. [1,3,6,12,68] fabricated damping MMCs with Al alloy matrix and SiC, Al
2
O
3
and
graphite (Gr) particulates reinforcements. In a direct view, Table 4 lists typical values of damping
capacity of the MMCs at 50 C and 250 C, respectively. It can be seen that both SiC/2519Al and
Al
2
O
3
/2519Al MMCs show a similar damping capacity as that of the unreinforced 2519Al around 50 C,
but a higher damping capacity than that of the unreinforced 2519Al around 250 C. The high damping
phenomena at high temperature may be ascribed to thermally activated grain boundary damping and
interface damping. The largest gains in damping capacity were observed in the Gr/2519Al MMCs,
which was 1.5 times as high as that of the unreinforced 2519Al in the testing temperature range. The
damping mechanisms in the Gr/2519Al MMCs were thought to be the intrinsic damping of graphite
particles, the dislocation damping, and the interface damping. The addition of graphite to aluminum
alloys is not favorable for mechanical properties. In proper ratio of SiC and graphite, the SiC
p
/Gr/Al
composite may possess high damping capacity, as well as fine mechanical properties.

Table 3. Damping capacity of graphite, Al
2
O
3
, SiC, Si
3
N
4
, and Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12
.
Material Test T (C) f (Hz) Maximum loss factor Ref.
Graphite Bending 30-250 0.1-10 0.013 [68]
A1
2
O
3
Axial 0-1200 - 0.0005 [72]
SiC Torsion 20-1400 10-15 0.0016-0.003 [73]
Si
3
N
4
Torsion 20-1250 10-15 0.003 [73]
Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12
Torsion 20-250 0.1-10 0.11 [74]

Table 4. Typical values of damping and modulus of 2519Al and MMCs at 1 Hz [68].
Material
tan
50 C 250 C
As received 2519 0.005 0.008
Spray deposited 2519 0.005 0.014
SiC/2519Al 0.004 0.020
Al
2
O
3
/2519Al 0.003 0.018
2922Gr/2519Al 0.008 0.019

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968
Figure 2. Damping capacity of SiC/Graphite/6061Al, SiC/6061Al, Graphite/6061Al
MMCs and 6061Al [12,75].


In 1997 the research group in University of California proposed a high damping composite of
SiC/Graphite/6061Al [75]. Figure 2 reveals that the damping behavior of SiC/Graphite/6061Al is
dominated by the presence of graphite particles while the stiffness of SiC/Graphite/6061Al is primarily
determined by the presence of SiC particles. Taking the SiC/Graphite/6061Al/21p (V
SiC
=10.5% and
V
Gr
=10.5%) as an example, after extrusion and heat treatment, the yield strength increased from
92 MPa to 280 MPa while the room temperature damping capacity (Q
-1
) was still at the level of ~0.01.
Since the matrix 6061Al alloys showed the strength of 249 MPa at the same treatment, the strengthening
effect of the reinforcement particles were quite small. From their results the interface damping
mechanism in such composite (with extrusion and heat treatment) cannot be expected, and therefore a
reinforcement phase with both high damping capacity and strengthening effects are necessary for the
purpose of high damping composite materials.

4.2. Damping behavior and mechanisms in Mg, Mg alloy and Mg based MMCs

Magnesium has a remarkable dislocation damping effect, which refers to a well-defined
amplitude-dependence of the internal friction and Youngs modulus. The dislocation damping effect is
caused by the movement of dislocations, which are weakly pinned on the basal plane. High damping
magnesium alloys base on the dislocation damping effect [76,77]. The Mg-Al and Mg-Zn type of
magnesium alloys offer good combination of room-temperature strength and ductility, and good
salt-spray corrosion resistance, while magnesium alloys consisted of rare-earth, alkaline earth or silicon
possess good performance at elevated temperature [78].
Studies showed that addition of hard reinforcing particulates in a ductile metallic matrix helps to
improve the overall damping capacity and stiffness. As a typical instance, Srikanth et al. [18]
investigated the effect of presence of SiC particulate reinforcement in Mg matrix. In these MMCs, the
hard ceramic particulates cause high residual stresses around the particulates in the form of an annular
Materials 2009, 2


969
plastic zone, owing to a large difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion of magnesium and
silicon carbide. According to the model about plastic zone damping proposed by Carreno-Morelli et
al. [21], the damping depends directly on the volume fraction of the plastic zone and the strain
amplitude, hence the damping of the pure magnesium matrix increased as a result of the presence of SiC
particulates. A comparison among representative materials of high damping Al or Mg based MMCs
reported in the latest three years is shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Damping data of Al or Mg based MMCs at room temperature in the latest
three years.
Material
Reinforcement
volume
fraction
Loss
tangent
tan
f
(Hz)
Test Mechanical property Ref.
Fly ash/A356
0 0.018
10 DMA
Dynamic
Youngs
modulus (GPa)
69
[31] 6 vol.% 0.03 70
12 vol.% 0.04 74
TiAl
3
/Al
0 0.004
1-10 DMA - [79] 5 wt.% 0.008
10 wt.% 0.012
FeAl
3
/Al
0 0.005
0.5 DMA - [80]
5 wt.% 0.01
TiC/AZ91
0 0.012
0.1 DMA
Youngs
modulus (GPa)
45
[81]
8 wt.% 0.020 49.1
C
ber
/
Mg-2 wt.%Si
- 0.01 1
torsion
pendulum
Shear modulus
(GPa)
18.8 [82]
Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12
/
Al
0 0.0027
2
torsion
pendulum
Compressive
strength (MPa)
95.4
[83] 20 wt.% 0.0098 136.2
25 wt.% 0.018 -

5. A New Design Concept of High Damping MMCs

In general, the design problem of high damping materials is how to utilize the damping mechanisms
associated with the stress-induced movements of crystalline defects, including point defects, dislocation
and planar defects. Especially, the dislocation and planar defects (such as grain boundaries and domain
walls) are more widely utilized owing to their relatively high specific damping level. In this case
however, exhibiting simultaneously high damping capacity and good mechanical properties has been
noted to be normally incompatible because the dislocation and planar defects are also the parameters that
control mechanical strength. In this sense the damping mechanism of point defects will not deteriorate
the mechanical properties while enhances the damping capacity of the materials. More importantly, the
usually applied reinforcement phase, such as Al
2
O
3
, SiC, and TiB
2
etc. that exhibit low intrinsic
damping capacity, could not bring to the composite a high damping behavior at room temperature since
the dislocation damping and interface damping should become noticeable only at quite high
Materials 2009, 2


970
temperatures. It becomes clear that a reinforcement phase with a quite high damping capacity and the
matrix alloys that supply satisfactory configuration to the inclusion particles are necessary for a smart
high strength high damping composite materials design.
Instead of dislocations and planar crystalline defects, the damping mechanism of point defects, which
enhances also the mechanical properties of materials, has been emphasized recently. For example, Yin
et al. [84] invented a new kind of high temperature damping alloy based on the body-centered cubic
-type Ti alloys. The high damping capacity (as high as Q
-1
=0.08 at 250 C) was realized through the
Snoek-type relaxation process of high concentration interstitial oxygen atoms and the yield strength
of the alloy was also obviously increased with the solute strengthening effects of the interstitial
oxygen atoms.

Figure 3. The temperature dependence of internal friction (Q
1
) and relative shear modulus
(M) for a Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12
compound [74].

Wang et al. [74] discovered the giant damping capacity in Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12
based oxides during the
crystalline defects studies in the lithium ionic conductive ceramics. Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12
based oxides with the
garnet like structure are a novel family of fast lithium ionic conductors and the lithium ionic conductivity
is as high as ~410
-5
S/cm at room temperature. Related to the high conductivity of lithium ions, the
plenty of lithium vacancies [85] in Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12
crystals result in the high damping capacity for such
oxide ceramics through the stress-induced reorientation of the high concentration lithium vacancies
(Snoek-type relaxation). The latest experimental results showed that the maximum damping value (Q
-1
)
of the Snoek-type relaxation in the Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12
ceramics can reach as high as 0.11 at 350 K and
1 Hz [74], as presented in Figure 3, which is about three orders higher than that in other ceramics (such
as Al
2
O
3
, SiC, TiB
2
). It should be noted that the maximum damping shifts toward higher temperature
with increasing frequency but hardly changes the damping level, which is quite different from the
damping caused by the phase transition. It is more interesting that the activation energy for Li
+
to move
can be easily varied with composition adjustment of the oxides. The variable activation energy for Li
+

Materials 2009, 2


971
movement indicates that we can control the damping peak temperature very easily to sustain the
temperature stable damping behavior. According to the reported data activation energy for Li
+

movement in such oxides can be varied from 0.5 eV to 1.2 eV, which indicates that a high damping peak
can be obtained in a large temperature range from 250 K to 523 K when the composition of the oxide is
adequately adjusted [86,87].

Figure 4. Ceramic content dependence of the internal friction (Q
1
), hardness, and
compressive strength for Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12
/Al MMCs [83].


A novel concept to design metal matrix composites that exhibit high damping capacity as well as
good mechanical performance at room temperature was proposed by Fang et al. [88]. The oxide
particulates, which possess high damping capacity and high hardness, are dispersed into the high
strength metallic alloys to form the MMCs. The oxide particulates are expected to contribute not only to
the enhancement of damping capacity owing to their high intrinsic damping level, but also to the
strength enhancements owing to the mechanism of particulate strengthening. Wang et al. [83] recently
confirmed this design concept with Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12
/Al composites prepared by powder metallurgy
method. The damping capacity (Q
-1
) is observed to be 0.018 at 325 K and 2 Hz, as shown in Fig. 4 [83],
and the yield strength and hardness of a Li
5
La
3
Ta
2
O
12
(20%)/Al composite is about 40% and 30% higher
than that of the pure Al, respectively. Therefore, through microstructure optimization and the fabrication
route adjustment, high strength (>500 MPa) and high damping capacity (Q
-1
>0.03) composite materials
could be realized with this novel design concept of MMCs.

6. Conclusions

The literature reviewed in this paper presents a cross-section of views and experimental results
obtained by investigators in the field of high damping metal matrix composites (MMCs). The damping
mechanisms of the MMCs are the intrinsic damping of the metal matrix, the intrinsic damping of the
reinforcing particulates, and the particulate/matrix interface damping. Regarding the processing of high
Materials 2009, 2


972
damping MMCs, a variety of classic techniques and variants can be utilized. Due to the incompatibility
of high damping and good mechanical property, and the flexibility of damping mechanisms, most of the
existing materials still cannot meet the demands. A new concept to design high damping MMC was
proposed, taking advantage of the point defect damping in the ceramic additives, and further study
is underway.

Acknowledgements

This work has been subsidized by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
50702061, 50672100, 10874185) and by the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant No.
090414181).

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