Investigation on the Influence of Basalt Short Fiber on Thermo-Physical Properties of Aluminium Metal Matrix Composites.
The objective of this research work was to investigate 
on the influence of basalt fiber on the microstructure and thermo-physical properties of Al /basalt short fiber metal matrix composites (MMCs). The MMCs were fabricated by liquid metallurgical technique and the basalt short fiber varies from 0 to 10 wt. %. The developed MMCs were characterized for damping, coefficient of thermal expansion, specific heat and electrical resistance using dynamic mechanical analyzer, thermal mechanical analyzer, differential scanning calorimeter and four probe electrometer respectively. The results shows that the specific damping properties and specific heat increase with increasing basalt fibers addition\ but, electrical resistivity and coefficient of thermal expansion decreased.
Preparation of aluminum/silicon carbide metal matrix composites using centrifugal atomization
This paper describes the development of a new technique to produce metal matrix composites (MMCs) by injecting silicon carbide particles into molten aluminum just prior to centrifugal atomization. A centrifugal atomization apparatus has been constructed for this study. Silicon carbide particles are injected during atomization of 6061 aluminum alloy to form metal matrix composite powder. The prepared aluminum/silicon carbide powder contains 18 vol.% of SiC particles and 1.2 vol.% of voids. The particle grain size is almost independent from the particle size.
Diversity of Electrospinning Approach for Vascular Implants: Multilayered Tubular Scaffolds
Abstract The biomimetics of biological structures found in nature remains one of the most promising approaches to engineer functional tissues from natural or synthetic biocompatible materials for the replacement of damaged or injured parts of the human body. Recently, medical therapeutic regimes have advanced into a new era, overcoming the known mechanical and biological variances that occur when using autologous or synthetic grafts. Basically, the core concept of tissue biofabrication, commonly referred to as tissue engineering, is to find out the favorable cellular microenvironments to grow a living tissue prior to clinical uses. In fact, the ability of stem cells to regenerate is controlled via signaling pathways (growth factors) and supporting materials (scaffolds) that guide the cellular activities. After the first successful experiments to fabricate polymer fibers from their solutions, Cooley proposed the use of an electric field a century ago (Cooley (US 692:631, 1902 ). The electrospinning technique has been continually developed as a fruitful polymer processing technique to draw ultrafine nonwoven fibers. Electrospun polymer fibers have been used for a wide range of technical and biotechnical applications such as filtration, organic solar cells, tissue engineering, and drug releasing implants. In this regard, this review begins with an overview about the various spinning approaches for the fabrication of polymer fibers as well as the basic principles of electrospinning process. In addition, this review will highlight vascular bypass surgery and, in particular, the needs for vascular tissue engineering. Finally, the review includes some of the latest attempts to improve the mechanical and biological properties of electrospun polymeric fibers and summarizes the challenges and prospects for the future. Lay Summary However, vascular defects are treated successfully via bypass surgical bypass grafting using autologous or synthetic vessels. The small-diameter vessels (less than 6) are often associated with high failure rate. This review reports some of the recent features that should be highlighted to fabricate an ideal graft for small-diameter vascular grafts. The review introduces multilayered conduits as an alternative approach to overcome the known mechanical and biological mismatches of single layered vascular grafts of electrospun polymers.