The Electrical Resistivity of Composite Materials.

The electrical resistivity of an artificial fibrous composite material (6061 aluminum-Thornel 50) and several directionally solidified eutectic alloys (Al-Al(,3)Ni, Al-Al(,6)Fe, Al-Al(,9)Co(,2), Ni-Ni(,3)Nb, Ni(Cr)/Ni(,3)Al -Ni(,3)Nb, Ni-Ni(,3)Al-Mo, (Co,Cr,Ni)-(Co,Cr,Ni)(,7)C(,3), and (Co,Cr,Fe)-(Co,Cr,Fe)(,7)C(,3)) has been studied as a function of temperature between 77 and 300 K. The theories for the longitudinal and transverse resistivities of the composites in terms of the components have been derived, and these have been inverted for the binary case to obtain the resistivities of the components in terms of the measured longitudinal and transverse resistivities. This gives good results for the resistivity of the matrix, but the resistivity of the dispersed phase is extremely sensitive to experimental error. It is found that interface effects play a very important role in the composite resistivities.