Improved Resistance to Damage of Silicon Carbide-Whisker-Reinforced Silicon Nitride-Matrix Composites by Whisker-Oriented Alignment |
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| Authors: | Chang-an Wang Yong Huang Zhipeng Xie |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China |
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| Abstract: | The effects of whisker-oriented alignment on resistance to damage of SiC( w )/Si3N4 composites have been investigated by the Vickers indentation method and R -curve behavior. It is shown that increasing the degree of whisker-oriented alignment decreases the lengths of Vickers impressions and indentation cracks. The results exhibit rising R -curve behaviors for the SiC( w )/Si3N4 composites with different degree of whisker-oriented alignment. Moreover, the initial crack length c i, the threshold of crack growth resistance K i, and the upper bound of crack growth resistance K ∞ change regularly with increasing degree of whisker-oriented alignment. All results suggest that the whisker-oriented alignment improves the resistance to damage of the composites, resulting in a more reliable and usable composite. |
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| Keywords: | composites silicon carbide silicon nitride |
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