The mechanical properties of the SiC/Al interface are crucial in estimating the overall strength of this ceramic-metal composite. The present work investigates the interdiffusion at the SiC/Al in-terface using molecular dynamics simulations. One cubic and one hexagonal SiC with a higher probability of orientations in contact with Al are examined as two samples of metal-matrix nanocomposites with whisker and particulate reinforcements. These reinforcements with the Si- and C-terminated surfaces of the SiC/Al interfaces are also studied. The average main and cross-interdiffusion coefficients are evaluated using a single diffusion couple for each system. The effect of temperature and annealing time are analysed on the self- and interdiffusion coeffi-cients. It is found that the diffusion of Al in SiC is similar in cubic and hexagonal SiC and as ex-pected, the interdiffusion coefficient increases as the temperature and annealing time increase. The model after diffusion can be used to evaluate the overall mechanical properties of the inter-face region in future studies.

Keywords