Presure infiltration processing constitutes an attractive method to produce Metal Matrix Composites. It consists in injection under exteranl pressure and subsequent solidification of a molten metal into a porous predorm of the reinforcing phase. Optimization ofmold filling kinetics nad soundness of the part requires modelling of the coupled phenomeana of fluid flow and heat transfer. As the physics of the process for an isothermal case are very similar to drainage phenomena in soil mechanics, we propose to extend a 3-D finite element software originally developed for oil mechanics to simulate MMC infiltration. In this paper, a solution is given for isothermal infiltration of porous preforms, taking into account the effect of capillary phenomena, under any increasing applied pressure function. Isothermal infiltration experiments of saffil preforms by pre aluminum were performed, in unidirectional, and 2-D axisymmetric configurations. Numerical and experimental data show good agreement, in terms of infiltration kinetics and porosity distribution.
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