Abstract: Titanium metal matrix composites (TiMMCs) reinforced by continuous silicon carbide fibres are being developed for aerospace applications. TiMMCs manufactured by the consolidation of matrix-coated fibre (MCF) method offer optimum properties because of the resulting uniform fibre distribution, minimum fibre damage and fibre volume fraction control. In this paper, the consolidation of Ti-6Al-4V matrix-coated SiC fibres during vacuum hot pressing has been investigated. Experiments were carried out on multi-ply MCFs under vacuum hot pressing (VHP). In contrast to most of existing studies, the fibre arrangement has been carefully controlled either in square or hexagonal arrays throughout the consolidated sample. This has enabled the dynamic consolidation behaviour of MCFs to be demonstrated by eliminating the fibre re-arrangement during the VHP process. The microstructural evolution of the matrix coating was reported and the deformation mechanisms involved were discussed.

Key words: Titanium matrix composites, Matrix-coated fibres, Vacuum hot pressing, Microstructure...