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Title: Erosion of a silicon carbide whisker reinforced silicon nitride

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6883191

The steady-state solid particle erosion behavior of hot-pressed Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ reinforced with 0, 10, and 20 weight percent SiC whiskers has been investigated at room temperature using angular alumina particles (63 to 270..mu..m diameter) as the erodent. The impact angle was varied from 30 to 90/sup 0/ and particle velocities were varied from 80 to 140 m/s. These materials were found to be very erosion resistant. However, there was little effect of the SiC whisker reinforcement on either the absolute erosion rate or on the velocity or particle-size exponents for the rates. The lack of a fiber reinforcement effect occurs even though the fiber additions provide an increase in the fracture toughness at high fiber contents. Results on differently processed Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ base materials showed that microstructural variations due to processing history have a very significant influence on the erosion resistance of the base (matrix) material. The results substantiate the idea that microstructure plays an important, but not fully understood, role in the erosion processes for brittle materials.

Research Organization:
North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh (USA). Dept. of Materials Engineering; Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-31109-ENG-38
OSTI ID:
6883191
Report Number(s):
CONF-861207-63; ON: DE87004703
Resource Relation:
Conference: Materials Research Society fall meeting, Boston, MA, USA, 1 Dec 1986; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English