6.1 Tailoring by Component Selection 165 10μm 50μm b Figure6.4.SEMphotographs of mechanically polished sections of aluminum-matrix compositescontaining 10 vol%silicon carbide whiskers.a High-magnification view,b low-magnification view.The whiskers are essentially randomly oriented; the whisker diameter is 1.4um and the whisker length is 18.6um.(From [61) Compared to silicon carbide,titanium diboride has a higher modulus but a lower thermal conductivity (Table 6.2).The high modulus makes titanium diboride a highly effective reinforcing material.The addition of TiBz to a metal greatly increases the stiffness,hardness and wear resistance and decreases the CTE,while it reduces the electrical and thermal conductivity much less than the addition of6.1 Tailoring by Component Selection 165 Figure6.4. SEMphotographsofmechanicallypolishedsectionsofaluminum-matrixcompositescontaining10vol%silicon carbide whiskers. a High-magnification view, b low-magnification view. The whiskers are essentially randomly oriented; the whisker diameter is 1.4μm and the whisker length is 18.6μm. (From [6]) Compared to silicon carbide, titanium diboride has a higher modulus but a lower thermal conductivity (Table 6.2). The high modulus makes titanium diboride a highly effective reinforcing material. The addition of TiB2 to a metal greatly increases the stiffness, hardness and wear resistance and decreases the CTE, while it reduces the electrical and thermal conductivity much less than the addition of