Melt Infiltration Approach to Ceramic Matrix Composites

Melt infiltration offers an alternative route to the synthesis of fully dense ceramic matrix composites. Necessary conditions with respect to chemical reactivity, melt viscosity, and wetting must be satisfied. Other properties of the reinforcement and matrix constituents must also be considered. With these restrictions this generic approach is applicable to a wide range of composite systems. Preliminary structure and property results are presented for the representative systems based on particulate and whisker SiC reinforcement in combination with CaSiO₃, SrSiO₃, and strontium feldspar matrices.