Research on interface control and damping properties of TiNi_p/Al composites

Developing vibration-damping materials capable of withstanding the rigorous thermal and mechanical environments of space remains a significant challenge. In this work, 60 vol% TiNi particle-reinforced aluminum matrix composites (TiNi_p/Al) were fabricated via pressure infiltration. The interfacial microstructure and resultant properties were tailored by pre-oxidizing TiNi particles at temperatures of 300, 500, 600, and 700 °C. Results indicate that the pre-oxidation layer effectively inhibited brittle interfacial reactions between the TiNi reinforcement and the Al matrix, leading to a substantial increase in bending strength, reaching 400 MPa. Furthermore, the controlled interface introduced interfacial slip, thereby enhancing damping capacity. The resulting composites demonstrated a synergistic combination of high strength and superior damping across a wide temperature range (−80 °C to 180 °C), maintaining a loss tangent (tan δ) consistently above 0.017, with a peak value of 0.0675 at the phase transition temperature. The underlying damping mechanism was elucidated using an interfacial slip theoretical model.