Properties and Applications of Ultrafine-Scaled Composites

It is well established that reducing the length scale of materials (e.g. grain size, particle spacing, etc.) can lead to increases in both strength and fracture resistance. In the extreme, as the length scale reaches the order of tens of nanometers, the strength levels can approach the theoretical strength of solids. Various methods exist for the production of these ultrafine-scaled materials (e.g. vapour deposition, rapid solidification, and the co-deformation of two-phase systems). In this paper, we will extend the concept of composite design charts developed by Ashby [1] to include the influence of both microstructural scale and manufacturing processes on the performance of composite systems.