Caccia, M.; Narciso, J. Key Parameters in the Manufacture of SiC-Based Composite Materials by Reactive Melt Infiltration. Materials2019, 12, 2425.
Caccia, M.; Narciso, J. Key Parameters in the Manufacture of SiC-Based Composite Materials by Reactive Melt Infiltration. Materials 2019, 12, 2425.
Caccia, M.; Narciso, J. Key Parameters in the Manufacture of SiC-Based Composite Materials by Reactive Melt Infiltration. Materials2019, 12, 2425.
Caccia, M.; Narciso, J. Key Parameters in the Manufacture of SiC-Based Composite Materials by Reactive Melt Infiltration. Materials 2019, 12, 2425.
Abstract
The manufacture of SiC-based composites is quite widespread, and currently different methods are employed for to produce them. The most efficient method, taking into account the cost/performance ratio, is reactive melt infiltration. It consists in infiltrating liquid silicon into a porous preform that must contain carbon, so that SiC is produced during infiltration. This chemical reaction is, in fact, the driving force of the process. In the present work, the synthesis of two SiC-based composite materials with very different applications and microstructures has been studied and optimized. In both cases, materials have been obtained with suitable properties for the selected applications. One of the materials studied is SiCp/Si for protection systems such as armor jackets, and the other one is Cf/SiC for use in braking systems. For the optimization, the dwell time and the atmosphere (Ar or primary vacuum) were used as variables. It has been found that in both preforms the optimum conditions are 1 hour dwell time and a vacuum atmosphere at 1450 °C. The effect of these parameters on microstructure and infiltration kinetics are discussed.
Keywords
SiC; CMCs ; reactive infiltration
Subject
Chemistry and Materials Science, Materials Science and Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
