Improved Resistance to Damage of Silicon Carbide‐Whisker‐Reinforced Silicon Nitride‐Matrix Composites by Whisker‐Oriented Alignment

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
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 ci, the threshold of crack growth resistance Ki, 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.

This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit: