Electrical Resistance of SiC Fiber Reinforced SiC/Si Matrix Composites at Room Temperature during Tensile Testing

The implementation of Ceramic Matrix Composites necessitates the understanding of stress‐dependent damage evolution. Toward this goal, two liquid silicon infiltrated SiCf reinforced SiC composites were tensile tested with electrical resistance (ER) monitoring as well as acoustic emission to quantify matrix cracking. ER was modeled using a combination of resistors in series and parallel to model transverse matrix cracks and fiber/matrix segments between matrix cracks. It is shown that resistance change is sensitive to transverse matrix crack formation and stress‐dependent debonding length. The model appears to be accurate up to the stress for matrix crack saturation.