Development of silicon carbide fiber-reinforced silicon carbide matrix composites with high performance based on interfacial and microstructure control

Abstract

Continuous SiC fiber-reinforced SiC matrix composites (SiCf/SiC) have been considered to be a key material as structural components for aerospace and energy fields. This paper reviews novel fabrication process of continuous SiCf/SiC composites with high performance based on interfacial and microstructure control and our approach to improvement of mechanical and thermal properties of SiCf/SiC composite based on modeling and analysis. The simple fabrication process of two-dimensional SiCf/SiC composite using sheet stacking and hot-pressing based on interfacial and microstructure control was developed, and dense SiC f/SiC composite with excellent mechanical and thermal properties was successfully obtained. Furthermore, novel fabrication process of SiC f/SiC composite using EPD process was proposed and it was demonstrated that EPD process is expected to be an effective way to control the fiber/matrix interface and the microstructure of SiCf/SiC composite with high performance. Interfacial properties of SiCf/SiC composite were quantitatively evaluated by push-in test using nanoindenter, and these quantitative results well agreed with the results on their mechanical properties, and these results lead to the material design of the SiC f/SiC composite with high mechanical properties and the optimization of its fabrication process. Simple model of thermal conductivity of SiC f/SiC composite based on series model of multilayered structure was suggested by our experimental data, and higher thermal conductivity of SiC f/SiC composite was successfully achieved by microstructure control. ©2010 The Ceramic Society of Japan.